scan log files for timestamp as creating timestamp

app/src/web/log_files.py

@@ -1,26 +1,57 @@
 from quart import render_template
-from quart_babel import format_datetime, format_decimal
+from quart_babel import format_datetime, format_decimal, _
 from quart.helpers import send_from_directory
 from werkzeug.utils import secure_filename
 from cnf.config import Config
+from datetime import datetime
+from os import DirEntry
 import os
 
 from . import web
 
 
-def _get_file(file):
+def _get_birth_from_log(path: str) -> None | datetime:
+    '''read timestamp from the first line of a log file'''
+    dt = None
+    try:
+        with open(path) as f:
+            first_line = f.readline()
+            first_line = first_line.lstrip("'")
+            fmt = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S" if first_line[4] == '-' \
+                else "%d-%m-%Y %H:%M:%S"
+            dt = datetime.strptime(first_line[0:19], fmt)
+    except Exception:
+        pass
+        # print(f"except: '{e}' for {first_line}")
+    return dt
+
+
+def _get_file(file: DirEntry) -> dict:
     '''build one row for the connection table'''
     entry = {}
     entry['name'] = file.name
     stat = file.stat()
     entry['size'] = format_decimal(stat.st_size)
-    entry['date'] = stat.st_mtime
+    try:
-    entry['created'] = format_datetime(stat.st_ctime, format="short")
+        dt = stat.st_birthtime
+
+    except Exception:
+        dt = _get_birth_from_log(file.path)
+
+    if dt:
+        entry['created'] = format_datetime(dt, format="short")
+
+        # sort by creating date, if available
+        entry['date'] = dt if isinstance(dt, float) else dt.timestamp()
+    else:
+        entry['created'] = _('n/a')
+        entry['date'] = stat.st_mtime
+
     entry['modified'] = format_datetime(stat.st_mtime, format="short")
     return entry
 
 
-def get_list_data():
+def get_list_data() -> list:
     '''build the connection table'''
     file_list = []
     with os.scandir(Config.get_log_path()) as it: