Different file systems have different ways of dealing with "creation time". Normal Unix file systems do not have a concept of creation vs modification time at all. You can only get "last modified" time. Windows NTFS does have the concept of: creation time, last accessed time, and last modification time. see (sic) ...

If I am reading your statement correctly, you are saying that the ctime, mtime, and atime do not exist under the historical unix file system inode. Is this correct?

So: some file systems track "creation time". Unix file systems are not one of them. Normally the "last modified" time is sufficient. And that's a good thing as that is all Perl allows you to get to with the standard built-in functions. But as a "nit" here, I point out that some filesystems do track creation time.

I can concur with that. Reference: "the ctime test may actually return the creation time". I would, however, ask what creation time signifies. What happens when a file is restored? Does the attribute follow on a copy? How about when the method of saving a file is "save new, rename old, rename new, remove old"?

I think that in the context we are discussing (OP's question), these concepts are for the most part equivalent.

Update:

Cleaned up my thoughts and wording

--MidLifeXis

In reply to Re^3: How to get the File creation date by MidLifeXis
in thread How to get the File creation date by soubalaji

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