Question

What is the best way to move/copy file while maintaining all its attributes (Date created, Date, etc)?

Thank you

Answer 1

If you are using Java 7, use java.nio.file.Files.copy(Path source, Path target, CopyOption... options)

Use the COPY_ATTRIBUTES option to maintain the last modified time:

COPY_ATTRIBUTES
Attempts to copy the file attributes associated with this file to the
target file. The exact file attributes that are copied is platform and
file system dependent and therefore unspecified. Minimally, the
last-modified-time is copied to the target file if supported by both
the source and target file store. Copying of file timestamps may
result in precision loss.

Emphasis added

For Java 6 and earlier, Apache commons has a function to copy files

    org.apache.commons.io.FileUtils.copyFile(File srcFile, File destFile,
boolean preserveFileDate)

Note the comments

Setting preserveFileDate to true tries to preserve the file’s last
modified date/times using File.setLastModified(long), however it is
not guaranteed that the operation will succeed. If the modification
operation fails, no indication is provided.

This will only try to preserve the modified date, and not other file attributes.

Otherwise, you will have to use Runtime.exec or something similar to run an external process.