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From: shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: What action updates a file's ACCESS time?
Keywords: file access time
Message-ID: <141@raysnec.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 90 16:38:41 GMT
References: <331@twg.bc.ca>
Organization: IRS/CI - Technical Solutions Branch
Lines: 16

bill@twg.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) writes:

>1) vi the file and quit without saving (access time updated)
>2) TAR archive some files to tape (updated)

	In both cases, your program opened the file for reading, thus
	the access time was updated.

>3) list file names to a file and printer
>   ls -l > /tmp/list  (not updated)
>   ls -l | lp         (not updated)

	In these cases, only the inode (containing file information) was
	accessed, not the files themselves. Thus, access time was not updated.

	shwake@raysnec