When inode change time changes?

[Julian H. Stacey]

Oliver Fromme wrote:
> Artem Kuchin wrote:
>  > Also, i use inode time because i only need files
>  > which really have been changed. For example,
>  > i you restore a file from a month ago it will have
>  > a date which is a month ago. Then that backup
>  > is destroyed but this file would not be backed up
>  > because the date is too  much in the past. So, we
>  > loose the file. If i used inode change time the file
>  > will be backup in any case. However, some 
>  > "stupid" programs like mysql or qmail seem to
>  > touch files so,
> 
> Pretty much _any_ operation on a file (except reading it)
> will update the ctime of the inode.  So I'm not surprised
> that the ctime of database files and mail files gets
> updated often.

I was uncertain what & when changed st_ctime st_atime st_mtime 
when I had to use SCO (ugh!) in 1990, as well as BSD. Not enough source
then & there, & manuals were insufficient, so to observe, I wrote
	http://berklix.com/~jhs/src/bsd/jhs/bin/public/statv/
More tools since, but might still be handy.
-- 
Julian Stacey. Munich Computer Consultant, BSD Unix C Linux. http://berklix.com
 HTML mail unseen. Ihr Rauch=mein allergischer Kopfschmerz. Dump cigs 4 snuff.