Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:27:16 -0800 From: Kirk McKusick <mckusick@mckusick.com> To: mdf@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: Re: write access to various times Message-ID: <201111100527.pAA5RGOQ055907@chez.mckusick.com> In-Reply-To: <CAMBSHm8ry6wF8z-ELhfAqrC7zzARat-YgZa8ymofHq16aQbxOg@mail.gmail.com>
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I am the one that added birthtime and the text that you quote on how to set it. I deliberately did not add a new system call to add all three (atime, mtime, and birthtime) because programs using the new system call would not compile/run on any system other than FreeBSD. Those that followed the admittedly cumbersome double system call would compile/run on all systems and those with birthtime would get it set correctly. UNIX has never allowed the ctime to be set because backup utilities such as dump depend on it being correct. A file loaded onto the system today needs to be dumped at the next backup even if its atime, mtime, and birthtime all claim that it has been around for years. If ctime could be set, none of the backup systems would be reliable. Kirk McKusick
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