When inode change time changes?

[Oliver Fromme]

Julian H. Stacey wrote:
 > 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.

Well, this is FreeBSD in 2007.  :-)

All syscalls that change st_{a,m,c,birth}time should be
documented in the stat(2) manpage.  I think that those
enumerations in the manpage are complete, but if someone
finds something that's missing there, then he should
file a PR to fix that bug.

Best regards
   Oliver

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