What is the function of the archived flag?

[Vulpes Velox]

On Sat, 3 Jul 2004 18:42:54 -0000
<edalley at covad.net> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
>   What is the function of the archived flag?
> 
>   I am running FreeBSD 4.9 with kern.securelevel = -1.
> 
>   I am using vnconfig with a msdos diskimage to mount
>   it using the command:
> 
>       mount -t msdos /dev/vn0c /usr/wine/disk
> 
>   After I mount it I notice that the /usr/wine/disk
>   directory and all files and directories below it
>   posess the flag attribute: "arch" when I list
>   them using "ls -lo".
> 
>   Try as I might, I cannot remove that flag even
>   as root and even in single user mode. The
>   command I am using is:
> 
>      chflags -R noarch /usr/wine/disk
>   
>   What is the use of this flag? I find no
>   explanation of the flag in the man
>   pages.
>  
>   I am getting strange behavior with
>   the application that I am running and I
>   suspect this "arch = archived" flag may
>   be the cause; I would like to understand
>   the meaning and use of the archived flag.

If it should be backed up or not...