Changing permissions without resetting archive bits?

[sirbob]

Hi.

Question: How would one go about adding or removing a permission on a
shared folder _without_ resetting the archive bit of every single file
and subordinate folder therein? We're in a bit of a transitional phase
with some of our network drives right now, and it's playing havok with
our backups: every time the permissions change, our nightly incremental
catches the entire shared drive, and we're running out of tapes.

(I know that setting individual permissions is a bad idea - we should
have used usergroups to begin with, and this would have never become an
issue in the first place. However, that's not how it's been done in
the past, and doing it that way in the future isn't going to help with
the task at hand...)

Any ideas?

Thanks,

- David Prokopetz.