Re: netbsd : internals : bach book : good to start-off?

[Rocky Hotas <rockyhotas%firemail.cc@localhost>]

On Jul 27  7:46, Robert Elz wrote:

[...]

>        Birth time: the time the file was born. Cannot be changed
>        after the file is created.
> 
> which is incorrect - the (100% useless) birth time is lowered each time
> the mod time is made earlier than the birth time was (my guess is that
> someone decided that it is nonsense to have a file which was last modified
> before it was created...)

This lets us continue a previous discussion. I struggle to figure out
why the birth time is useless.
A Last Modified time preceding the birthtime - I think, and correct me
if I'm wrong - will happen only if the file is moved and its attributes
are not preserved.
If all the file attributes with their timestamps are always preserved
when it is copied and / or moved, the birthtime is meaningful.
Also, you wrote there is no coherent way to define the birthtime.
Maybe you refer to the fact that it is not clear, in the case of a moved
file, if this birthtime should be the time when the file was created
(regardless of the filesystem it was belonging at that moment), or instead
the time when the file was created in the filesystem it is currently
placed. Is this the ambiguity you are referring to?

Rocky