From owner-freebsd-questions  Fri Dec 30 13:28:18 1994
Return-Path: questions-owner
Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.9/8.6.6) id NAA01126 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 30 Dec 1994 13:28:18 -0800
Received: from Root.COM (implode.Root.COM [198.145.90.1]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.9/8.6.6) with ESMTP id NAA01101; Fri, 30 Dec 1994 13:26:42 -0800
Received: from corbin.Root.COM (corbin.Root.COM [198.145.90.18]) by Root.COM (8.6.8/8.6.5) with ESMTP id NAA07586; Fri, 30 Dec 1994 13:26:27 -0800
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by corbin.Root.COM (8.6.9/8.6.5) with SMTP id NAA07659; Fri, 30 Dec 1994 13:27:51 -0800
Message-Id: <199412302127.NAA07659@corbin.Root.COM>
X-Authentication-Warning: corbin.Root.COM: Host localhost didn't use HELO protocol
To: Chuck Bacon <crtb@upcoming.dcrt.nih.gov>
cc: freebsd-bugs@freebsd.org, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Why does ls report wrong creation date on symlinks? 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 30 Dec 94 16:18:52 EST."
             <199412302118.QAA02761@upcoming.dcrt.nih.gov> 
From: David Greenman <davidg@Root.COM>
Reply-To: davidg@Root.COM
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 1994 13:27:50 -0800
Sender: questions-owner@freebsd.org
Precedence: bulk

>I just discovered that "ls -l" reports the creation date incorrectly
>on symlinks.  It reports as the creation date of each symlink, the
>modification time of its directory.  Thus, if I "touch foo" in some
>directory, a subsequent "ls -l" will report the identical creation
>time for both foo and all the symlinks in the directory.  Therefore,
>"ls -lt" will position all the symlinks at the top.

   As has been said numerous times in the past already, this is not a bug.
It's the intended behavior. The idea is that symlinks aren't necessarily files
and therefore should not have their own file permissions/dates/etc...but
instead should take on those attributes from the file that the symlink points
to if it exists.

-DG