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Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 14:27:37 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: kern/3267: mtime/ctime sometimes updated when a program is run
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>Number:         3267
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       mtime/ctime sometimes updated when a program is run
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Sat Apr 12 11:30:01 PDT 1997
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Kevin Martin
>Organization:
pair Networks
>Release:        FreeBSD 2.2.1-RELEASE i386
>Environment:

	Fresh 2.2.1-RELEASE installation, no active users, only cron jobs.

>Description:

	Cron jobs, which run every ten minutes, make several calls to
	/usr/bin/grep and /usr/bin/wc - once or twice per day, these
	files get their ctime and mtime updated to the current time.
	This has also been seen in the past with 2.2-BETA_A and 2.2-GAMMA.
	It has been reported as early as February 1996 for FreeBSD 2.0.5.
	The most serious concern is that when this problem was occuring on
	a heavily loaded 2.2-BETA_A system, we also saw numerous filesystem
	corruptions (disappearing files, etc) - although there is no proof
	that this is related.

>How-To-Repeat:

	Have been unable to repeat by running programs manually many times,
	but it happens routinely if not consistently when run from a cron
	job (as root).  See also the archives of freebsd-bugs and
	freebsd-questions, when searched for "mtime and ctime".

>Fix:
	
	Unknown.  Errant filesystem bug?

>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: