Subject: Re: ctime updated unexpectedly
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked] (Eric Blake)
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 17:14:13 +0100

>Hi everyone,
>> 
>> I wonder if someone could clear up an issue I'm having with ls -c 
(sorting 
>> files by ctime). As I understand it, the ctime is only updated when 
file 
>> status information (such as permissions) changes, or a file is 
completely 
>> recreated. It looks to me though, like the ctime is being updated every 

>> time the contents of a file change.

>You misunderstand ctime, as specified by POSIX.  See http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap04.html, section 4.7, and >various other places within POSIX.  ctime is required 
to reflect any change to a file's metadata _or contents_.  Also, while 
mtime can be >arbitrarily changed (think utimes()), ctime is supposed to 
be an accurate side effect of file modification that cannot be spoofed.

OK, thanks for the advice. Do you know if there is any way I can get the 
information I was expecting. If not, I'll have to make some major changes 
to some complicated shell scripts :(

>> 
>> :.________________
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>Disclaimers like this to a public mailing list are not wise; some people 
refuse to respond to messages with such a disclaimer.

Oops, my bad.

>--
>Eric Blake

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