python - Comparing file creation date -

i trying archive old files based on creation date. have data starting 12-17-2010 setting base date , incrementing there. here code

import os, time, tarfile datetime import datetime, date, timedelta import datetime  path = "/home/appins/.scripts/test/" count = 0 set_date = '2010-12-17' date = datetime.datetime.strptime(set_date, '%y-%m-%d')  while (count < 2):     date += datetime.timedelta(days=1)     tar_file = "nas_archive_"+date.strftime('%m-%d-%y')+".tgz"     log_file = "archive_log_"+date.strftime('%m-%d-%y')     fcount = 0     f = open(log_file,'ab+')     #print date.strftime('%m-%d-%y')     root, subfolders, files in os.walk(path):         file in files:             file = os.path.join(root,file)             file = os.path.join(path, file)             filecreation = os.path.getctime(file)             print datetime.fromtimestamp(filecreation)," file creation date"             print date.strftime('%m-%d-%y')," base date"             if filecreation == date:                 tar.add(file)                 f.write(file + '\n')                 print file," of matching date"                 fcount = fcount + 1     f.close()     count += 1 

filecreation variable getting float value. how can use compare base date?

timestamp = datetime.mktime(date.timetuple()) 

the 'timestamp' contain timestamp comparable values returned getctime. regarding comment under question: on windows getctime returns creation time, on unixes modification time (http://docs.python.org/3.1/library/os.path.html).

edit (regarding questions in comment):

1) mktime present in python 2.x: http://docs.python.org/2/library/time.html#time.mktime

2) get file creation time python on linux

edit2:

obviously stupid, , 1 should proceed suggested tdelaney below:

date.fromtimestamp(filecreation) 

and compare dates, not timestamps. wasn't looking @ algorithm doing :)