Recovering file attributes from snapshot

[Michael ODonnell]

Here's a recipe for creating a situation like the one I'm
dealing with:

   mkdir /tmp/etc.b0rken
   cd    /tmp/etc.b0rken
   cp -a /etc/. .
   chmod -R a+rwx .
   chown 1234.5678 $( find . -type d )
   chown 2468.1357 $( find . -type f )

...after which you'll have a hierarchy in /tmp/etc.b0rken 
that's extremely b0rken WRT the real /etc just as my files
are b0rken WRT to their desired conditions.  The goal is to
now be able to stand in /tmp/etc.b0rken and force all UIDs,
GIDs and permissions back to match those in the real /etc.

Note that I appreciate your suggestion and I'm not asking you
to script my solution for me, just pointing out that while the
FTimes suite can certainly help you detect b0rken attributes
it (apparently) does not help you correct them...