From the POSIX standards:
Quote:
4.7 File Times Update
Each file has three distinct associated time values: st_atime, st_mtime, and st_ctime. The st_atime field is associated with the times that the file data is accessed; st_mtime is associated with the times that the file data is modified; and st_ctime is associated with the times that the file status is changed. These values are returned in the file characteristics structure, as described in <sys/stat.h>.
st_atime == atime
st_ctime == ctime
st_mtime == mtime
Plus if you search the forum for file time you will find a lot of good information.
Broli - the definitions of these have been fixed for years - different apps do not violate those definitions. Things that can change mtime are opening a file for write/append or a call to utime() (e.g., touch). chmod or chown changes ctime, and utime or opening a file for read changes the atime. These values are NOT part of the file, they are file metadata maintained by the filesystem, as accessed thru the kernel.