Sponsored Content
Top Forums UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers Unsure why access time on a directory change isn't changing Post 303037890 by hicksd8 on Thursday 15th of August 2019 05:12:14 PM
Old 08-15-2019
You didn't say which operating system this is but there has to be difference between read and open. If you think about it, if a read updated the access time then all the access times would change when a backup is run which wouldn't be any good if you had to restore the whole lot. However, if an application opens a file then that will update the access time. For example, if you open a file with vi and then immediately quit with :q!, the access time should update because the file has been specifically opened. Additionally, if youvi followed by :w! (even if you haven't changed anything) the file will be written back so the modified date should change.

Now with a directory it is holding the details of its files so if a new file is created the directory is modified. Also, if an application specifically opens a file with that directory in its pathname (and blocks may need to be allocated/deallocated to the file), then the access time should change.

You should be able to verify this on your operating system with a few tests.

Last edited by hicksd8; 08-16-2019 at 05:20 AM..
These 2 Users Gave Thanks to hicksd8 For This Post:
 

8 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Solaris

help in changing the access level for directories

Hi all, can some one help me in chmod command, and let me know the various combinations for this command. for : eg chmod -R 777 <dir names> this gives all rights to all but i want the specific access levels kindly help me out in this issue. Thank you, lakshmanan (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: lakshmananl
2 Replies

2. Linux

A little unsure of something

If i want to display a banner that says Happy Bday, but I want to put that output banner into a file called bday4me, could I use the command (echo) or (banner -w35) Happy Bday >> bday4me would this command work? Sorry for asking, but i'm at home just now and don't have access to a UNIX... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: Cisco
3 Replies

3. Shell Programming and Scripting

How to change prompt color when changing path

Hi all, Can you tell me how to change the prompt color (only the path part) when I chnange directory with "cd"? I use the sequence below in ".bashrc" (Solaris 8) to change my prompt colors and I'd like to modify it to change the path color when I cange directory. PSC() { echo -ne "\"; }... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: majormark
0 Replies

4. Shell Programming and Scripting

Last modified time of the folder is changing when I view the file inside the directory

Hi., Last modified time of the folder is changing when I view the file inside the directory. Here is the test on sample directory. I believe that ls -l commands gives the time detail w.r.t last modified time. Pl. suggest. bash-3.2$ mkdir test bash-3.2$ cd test bash-3.2$ touch myfile.txt... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: IND123
2 Replies

5. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

File access time does not change on some files

Hey All, I want to get the access time of files in a directory. I used ls -lu on a directory and picked a file that had the access time of Mar 1 and used cat to get the contents of the file. Then I used the ls -lu again and the access time changed on that file. Perfect !! Now if I cat a... (10 Replies)
Discussion started by: vipulgupta0
10 Replies

6. Shell Programming and Scripting

Unsure of sed notation (nu\\t.\*)

This piece of code is in a shell script I'm trying to modify to run on my system. sed s:nu\\t.\*:"nu=0" It's clearly a substitute script which replaces nu\\t.\* with nu = 0. What exactly does nu\\t.\* demarcate though-- I thought it was just the previous nu = xxxxx (which existed and is... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: czar21
3 Replies

7. Shell Programming and Scripting

Change to directory and search some file in that directory in single command

I am trying to do the following task : export ENV=aaa export ENV_PATH=$(cd /apps | ls | grep $ENV) However, it's not working. What's the way to change to directory and search some file in that directory in single command Please help. (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: saurau
2 Replies

8. Shell Programming and Scripting

Bash looking in different directory for file that isn't referenced in command

When I run the below bash I get the expected output, which is the sum of all matching targets less than 20 in $file1. The filename in the directory is fixed (in bold). for file1 in /home/cmccabe/Desktop/test/panel/reads/16-0000_EPIL70.txt ; do bname=`basename $file1` ... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: cmccabe
3 Replies
utime(3)						     Library Functions Manual							  utime(3)

Name
       utime - set file times

Syntax
       #include <sys/types.h>
       int utime (path, times)
       char *path;
       struct utimbuf *times;

Description
       The path points to a pathname naming a file.  The function sets the access and modification times of the named file.

       If  times  is  NULL, the access and modification times of the file are set to the current time.	A process must be the owner of the file or
       have write permission to use in this manner.

       If times is not NULL, times is interpreted as a pointer to a utimbuf structure and the access and modification times are set to the  values
       contained in the designated structure.  Only the owner of the file or the super-user can use this way.

       The function causes the time of the last file status change(st_ctime) to be updated with the current time.

       The times in the following structure are measured in seconds since 00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970.
       struct  utimbuf	{
	       time_t  actime;	  /* access time */
	       time_t  modtime;   /* modification time */
       };

Return Values
       Upon successful completion, a value of zero (0) is returned.  Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

Diagnostics
       The function fails, if any of the following is true:

       [EACCES]       Search permission is denied by a component of the path prefix.

       [EACCES]       The effective user ID is not super-user, not the owner of the file, times is NULL, and write access is denied.

       [EFAULT]       The times is not NULL and points outside the process's allocated address space.

       [EFAULT]       The path points outside the process's allocated address space.

       [ENOENT]       The named file does not exist or path points to an empty string and the environment defined is POSIX or SYSTEM_FIVE.

       [ENOTDIR]      A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

       [EPERM]	      The effective user ID is not a super-user, not the owner of the file, and times is not NULL.

       [EROFS]	      The file system containing the file is mounted read-only.

       [ETIMEDOUT]    A connect request or remote file operation failed, because the connected party did not respond after a period of time deter-
		      mined by the communications protocol.

See Also
       stat(2)

																	  utime(3)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:19 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy