teracopy and archive bit?

Question

I like how when I do a copy and paste in windows, teracopy intercedes.

can I get it to do what /M of xcopy does and /A ?

turning off the archive bit at source end.. after a copy. and only copying files whose archive bit is set.

Answer 1

It can't and currently has nothing similar to that feature either [correction/update - see user's comment/answer copying if newer at source would do the same thing, and user mentions that teracopy has such an option]. Alternatively, there is Fastcopy, and Fastcopy while lacking the shell integration to intercept a copy/paste of files, it does have an option to copy changed files from one location to another. And you can see a listing of files that'd be copied before doing the copy. This "diff" feature is better than the archive bit option of xcopy since it doesn't rely on a bit/the archive bit that'd be changed if you copied to 2 different destinations.

Answer 2

This behavior of Fastcopy can be reproduced with Teracopy as well: just copy the files, and on request choose to 'skip existing file' & 'only if newer' (reasoning setting the archive bit and modification time are happening at the same event, which doesn't need to be).

Basically, Teracopy is not a diff tool but a copy tool assuring exact copies by comparing original and copy using hashes. Integrity comes before speed but even speed is enhanced by using internal buffering and large file system calls. Thus, best practise would be to set the option 'Always test after copy'.