"touch"-ing files (changing time/date) in batch

[VJ]

Hello,

I have a silly problem... After a trip, I now have a number of folders that contain digital pictures, e.g.
\a\dsc_0001.jpg
\a\dsc_0002.nef
\a\dsc_0003.nef
\b\dsc_0001.nef
\b\dsc_0002.nef
\b\dsc_0003.jpg

I'd like these to be numbered in one folder, so that I have all of them toghether (have the files in a numbered from 1-3, the files in b from 4-6, ...). The batchprocessing software I use (Nikon Capture) allows me to do just that, but there is a small problem: it determines the order of files not based on their name, but on their date/time. So if I manipulated picture dsc_001.nef as the last one, after the "batchcopy" it will be the last one...

So, how can I change the date/time for files in such a way that they resemble the alphabetical order of the files...? (we are talking >400 files)

Thanks!


Jörg

edit: Ideally, I'd actually like to give the files the date/time present in the exif-header, this matches the alphabetical order and means something.

[GNEP]

Couldn't you either (a) write a batch (.BAT) file, or (b) use Perl script (less sure about this one).

I am reasonably sure that with wildcards, dos commands and the limited conditionals that you can do in batch files, this would be the best way to go. Unfortunately I haven't really touched them since I used dos. Which was a little while ago...

[Ribbit]

Disclaimer: I haven't tried any of this at all...

- Get Jhead.exe from http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/jhead/
- jhead -ft *.jpg (What's a .nef?)
- Profit! ...um, you're done.

[VJ]

GNEP: Yes, I was thinking along the lines of a for-loop, combined with sleep and touch. It could be that I need Cygwin (or some commandline tools), as sleep and touch are not default in Windows. If necessary, I think a small C file could also perform this task.

Ribbit: Thanks, I'll try it out. The NEF-file is the Nikon Electronic RAW format, so if the jhead cannot extract the Exif-info from those files, I'm afraid it won't work... (but I think the header is standard)


Jörg

[GT98]

Have you tried downloading ACDsee 4.0 or something and trying its batch option?

[VJ]

Ribbit: jhead does what it claims to do, but cannot work with the .nef files (it just states it is not a .jpg)... And about 95% of my files are .nef...

GT98: Hey, good thought ! I for one now that ACDSee can read the .nef exif (and even the thumbnail), so it might be possible ! I'll download it now !


Jörg