"birthtime" always corresponds with the comment /* time of file creation */ in /usr/include/sys/stat.h. man stat mentions ONE time "birth time of the inode": The time file was last accessed or modified, of when the inode was last changed, or the birth time of the inode. There is no further explanation of the meaning and the correlation to the "time of file creation". Fix: Add the explanation How-To-Repeat: man stat
Hi Markus, There is xref to stat(2) man page with the st_birthtime field description. Does this suit you? -- Maxim Konovalov
Added to the audit trail. -- Maxim Konovalov ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:09:49 -0400 (EDT) From: waldeck@gmx.de To: undisclosed-recipients: ; Subject: Re: Re: Re: docs/100494 Hi Maxim, you did not answer my last email! > I'm not sure I understand your quiestion completely. In UFS2 there is > a lazy inode allocation mechanism but it is irrelevant to the topic > because st_birthtime is an attribute of the file the inode refers. Summary: 1. birthtime is NOT a standard Un!x feature. 2. The biological term "birth" is misleading and unsuitable! 3. A clear and evident definition is required! 4. During the file creation a inode is allocated. 5. This time is saved in st_birthtime. man 1 stat should be: > a, m, c, B > The time file was last accessed or modified, of when the > inode was last changed, or the time of file creation > (the so called birth time of the inode). instead of: > inode was last changed, or the birth time of the inode. man 2 stat should be: > st_birthtime Time when the file was created and the inode was allocated. ^^^^ instead of: > st_birthtime Time when the inode was created. Thanks! Markus
Your new statements are incorrect; birthtime refers to when the inode was allocated, not when the file was created. The implications of using any term other than the self-descriptive "birth time" really are unclear (for instance, when is a file restored from backup created?) and so we're really better off just using the term "birth time". Ceri
State Changed From-To: open->closed The term "birth time" is as unambiguous as we can get here. It is /not/ the time that the file was created.