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Re: ctime vs. Create Time



I would much prefer that both creation and modification times be preserved.
If we're talking about copying a file intact between systems, inevitably,
there will be somebody who will have that requirement.  If the field is
common (or at least reasonably so), I always vote to preserve it if at all
possible.

For example, in VMS there are even more time fields kept for a file, although
I don't expect this standard to address those (unless you're feeling
particularly amicable today <grin>).


At 07:31 AM 10/7/2002, Joseph Galbraith wrote:
Hi all,

In the 'draft-draft' version of the sftp draft,
I added a ctime field.  Then, in the course of
some other work I was doing, I actually looked
at what the ctime field meant.

Here is the text describing both the ctime and
mtime fields from the linux man page:

       The  field st_mtime is changed by file modifications, e.g.
       by mknod(2), truncate(2), utime(2) and write(2)  (of  more
       than  zero  bytes).   Moreover, st_mtime of a directory is
       changed by the creation  or  deletion  of  files  in  that
       directory.   The st_mtime field is not changed for changes
       in owner, group, hard link count, or mode.

       The field st_ctime is changed by  writing  or  by  setting
       inode  information  (i.e., owner, group, link count, mode,
       etc.).

Now, thats not what I thought at all!  I thought the 'c' in
ctime stood for create.  (You may even notice that in the
paragraph describing 'atime', 'ctime', and 'mtime', I said
that ctime was 'creation' time.

Under windows, the creation time of a file is stored, and I
was looking for the ability to perserve that value.

So, in my working copy I've changed ctime into 'createtime'.

I'm not sure I see a need for both mtime and ctime. Do people
think we need both?

What do people think about create time?

- Joseph

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