The file was created. The time tells you when it was created. How is that false or ambiguous?
Now, let's say I update the information.

I could do it one of two ways. I can copy all the data to a new file, then rename the file back over to the existing name. Or I could rewrite the file in place with the new information: more dangerous, but just as valid.

Should these both have the same original creation time, the creation time of when I started to do the update, or the creation time of when I finished closing the file?

Should both methods result in the same creation time?

See, the problem is, what does "creation" mean once you can change things? The "creation" of the string "hello world" where "HELLO world" was formerly is "right now", is it not? So why should the creation time reflect an older timestamp than just now?

From when do you measure the beginning of the existance of "this file", when the contents can be changed?

The Unix founders therefore argued that there is no sensible consistent definition for "creation time", and got rid of it entirely. Yeay.

Instead, we get three very useful, and clearly defined, timestamps. Time of last access (useful to find stale or unused files), time of last contents-modified (used by make), and time of last contents-or-meta-info-changed (used by backups).

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

In reply to Re^5: time difference by merlyn
in thread time difference by swaroop

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