Re: ctime vs. Create Time

["Joseph Galbraith" <galb-list%vandyke.com@localhost>]

> 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>).

Well, I might be :-)

I don't remember what they are though; my VMS experience is
about 10 years ago, so it is growing dimmer and dimmer.
I was trying to remember if VMS did create time and thought
that it did.  What other time fields does VMS keep?

Do you think the draft should address them?  Do you think
they are useful, even if not generally implementable?

- Joseph

>
>
> 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
>
> ------
> +-------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
> | Dan O'Reilly                  |  "There are 10 types of people in this |
> | Principal Engineer            |   world: those who understand binary   |
> | Process Software              |   and those who don't."                |
> | http://www.process.com        |                                        |
> +-------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
>
>
>