Touches the creation times (st_birthtime) back to the modified time for files on MacOS, where the creation time is greater than the modified datetime

touchback_birthtime.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

# this small script touches the creation times (st_birthtime) back to the modified time
# for files on MacOS, where the creation time is greater than the modified datetime.
#
# fixes a small problem I had with some very old photo files...

from subprocess import check_output, PIPE
import sys, dateparser

def get_creation_date(filename):
    date = check_output(['GetFileInfo', '-d', filename], stdin=PIPE).decode("utf-8")
    return dateparser.parse(date), date

def get_modification_date(filename):
    date = check_output(['GetFileInfo', '-m', filename], stdin=PIPE).decode("utf-8")
    return dateparser.parse(date), date

def set_creation_date(filename, date):
    return dateparser.parse(check_output(['SetFile', '-d', date, filename], stdin=PIPE).decode("utf-8"))

for file in sys.argv[1:]:
    crdate, crdatestr = get_creation_date(file)
    moddate, moddatestr = get_modification_date(file)
    print("checking " + file + ": ", end="")
    if crdate > moddate:
        print(crdate, moddate)
        set_creation_date(file, moddatestr)
    else:
        print("OK")