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Stat command shows birth after modify time?
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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FWIW, the stat structure in Linux does not include birth time [1]. It only gives you:
atime: The time of last access.mtime: The time of last modification.ctime: The time of the last change to the inode.I assume the
statcommand is using a filesystem-specific method to get the birth time.Anyway, I don't think any of these stats is guaranteed to be consistent with the rest (or even correct). For example, it is common to disable
atimetracking to improve I/O performance.Assuming the data is accurate, I think the other comment about the file being a copy is the best explanation.
The
statcommand is using statx, which gives you a slightly different struct. statx is the cool new Linux-only system call for stat-ing. Not every filesystem will support the new btime field. (And, as you correctly say, many of those time fields are wrong, anyway)Ooo neat. I was not aware of this syscall. TIL!