UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I would like to clear up some confusion about this: the "c" in "ctime" is for "change", while the "m" in "mtime" is for "modification". This was a pretty sloppy job on the part of whoever came up with these misleading terms.

"mtime" is what you would expect: the time of the last modification of the file. It describes the age of the data in it.

"ctime" is the time of the last change of the inode of the file. "c" is not for "creation", as you seem to think, but for "change". Obviously it gets changed whenever something is written to the file, because writing to it changes its directory information (like i.e. the size) and writing to it changes the "mtime" as well. On the other hand by changing the ownership information or the filemode only the "ctime" changes but not the "mtime"

You might want to read Perderabos detailed explanation for further details.

I hope this helps.

bakunin

I originally put touch -d ... but it needs to in fact be touch -t .... which do you have in the script?