folder modified before it existed I did a complete reinstall of OS X El Capitan last week-deleted the old Macintosh HD and installed OSX. Upon checking some hidden folders, I noticed that some files have Date Modified and Created property set to dates such as February 12 2016. I find that peculiar, because I installed OSX last week. How come I have folders on my computer that were modified even before they existed? Is this a leftover from Apple's team of engineers, meaning that they created this folder on that date?
The original Install.framework used pax to deliver the payload. pax will attempt to preserve file metadata. pax was repackaged into a proprietary binary whose behavior mimics ditto which also preserves creation or birth time. I have files installed on my computer that have modification dates before my computer was manufactured.