Unix : mtime, ctime, and atime
Friday, March 2, 2012
Unix keeps 3 timestamps for each file: mtime, ctime, and atime. Most people seem to understand atime (access time), it is when the file was last read. There does seem to be some confusion between mtime and ctime though. ctime is the inode change time while mtime is the file modification time. "Change" and "modification" are pretty much synonymous. There is no clue to be had by pondering those words. Instead you need to focus on what is being changed. mtime changes when you write to the file. It is the age of the data in the file. Whenever mtime changes, so does ctime. But ctime changes a few extra times. For example, it will change if you change the owner or the permissions on the file.
Labels: Unix mtime ctime and atime
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