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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Ls -l displays ctime or mtime? Post 302803747 by alister on Tuesday 7th of May 2013 10:09:07 AM
Old 05-07-2013
File size is irrelevant. mtime is updated whenever a file is written to, whether or not its size is changed. As Scott pointed out, a directory is a file whose contents is a list of files. When a file is created or deleted, the parent directory's contents must be modified. This requires a write which requires an mtime update.

Also, in case it is relevant to your notion of size, the amount of storage consumed by a file and the length of the file's contents are not usually equal. Some tools report the former while others report the latter. Further, regardless of which value is reported, the default unit may be a very coarse block size which may not reflect minor changes.

Regards,
Alister
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LS(1)							      General Commands Manual							     LS(1)

NAME
ls - list contents of directory SYNOPSIS
ls [ -ltasdrucifg ] name ... DESCRIPTION
For each directory argument, ls lists the contents of the directory; for each file argument, ls repeats its name and any other information requested. The output is sorted alphabetically by default. When no argument is given, the current directory is listed. When several arguments are given, the arguments are first sorted appropriately, but file arguments appear before directories and their contents. There are several options: -l List in long format, giving mode, number of links, owner, size in bytes, and time of last modification for each file. (See below.) If the file is a special file the size field will instead contain the major and minor device numbers. -t Sort by time modified (latest first) instead of by name, as is normal. -a List all entries; usually `.' and `..' are suppressed. -s Give size in blocks, including indirect blocks, for each entry. -d If argument is a directory, list only its name, not its contents (mostly used with -l to get status on directory). -r Reverse the order of sort to get reverse alphabetic or oldest first as appropriate. -u Use time of last access instead of last modification for sorting (-t) or printing (-l). -c Use time of last modification to inode (mode, etc.) instead of last modification to file for sorting (-t) or printing (-l). -i Print i-number in first column of the report for each file listed. -f Force each argument to be interpreted as a directory and list the name found in each slot. This option turns off -l, -t, -s, and -r, and turns on -a; the order is the order in which entries appear in the directory. -g Give group ID instead of owner ID in long listing. The mode printed under the -l option contains 11 characters which are interpreted as follows: the first character is d if the entry is a directory; b if the entry is a block-type special file; c if the entry is a character-type special file; - if the entry is a plain file. The next 9 characters are interpreted as three sets of three bits each. The first set refers to owner permissions; the next to permissions to others in the same user-group; and the last to all others. Within each set the three characters indicate permission respectively to read, to write, or to execute the file as a program. For a directory, `execute' permission is interpreted to mean permission to search the directory for a specified file. The permissions are indicated as follows: r if the file is readable; w if the file is writable; x if the file is executable; - if the indicated permission is not granted. The group-execute permission character is given as s if the file has set-group-ID mode; likewise the user-execute permission character is given as s if the file has set-user-ID mode. The last character of the mode (normally `x' or `-') is t if the 1000 bit of the mode is on. See chmod(1) for the meaning of this mode. When the sizes of the files in a directory are listed, a total count of blocks, including indirect blocks is printed. FILES
/etc/passwd to get user ID's for `ls -l'. /etc/group to get group ID's for `ls -g'. LS(1)
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