is compressed to gzi.msd.exe.gz. Names are not truncated on systems
which do not have a limit on file name length.
-By default, @command{gzip} keeps the original file name and timestamp in
-the compressed file. These are used when decompressing the file with the
-@option{-N} option. This is useful when the compressed file name was
-truncated or when the timestamp was not preserved after a file
-transfer. However, due to limitations in the current @command{gzip} file
+By default, @command{gzip} keeps the original file name in the
+compressed file. This can be useful when decompressing the file with
+@option{-N} if the compressed file name was truncated after a file
+transfer.
+
+If the original is a regular file, @command{gzip} by default keeps its
+timestamp in the compressed file. This can be useful when
+decompressing the file with @option{-N} if the timestamp was not
+preserved after a file transfer.
+However, due to limitations in the current @command{gzip} file
format, fractional seconds are discarded. Also, timestamps must fall
within the range 1970-01-01 00:00:01 through 2106-02-07 06:28:15
@abbr{UTC}, and hosts whose operating systems use 32-bit timestamps
@item --name
@itemx -N
-When compressing, always save the original file name and timestamp; this
+When compressing, always save the original file name, and save
+the original timestamp if the original is a regular file; this
is the default. When decompressing, restore the original file name and
timestamp if present. This option is useful on systems which have
a limit on file name length or when the timestamp has been lost after