Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!letni!mic!convex!convex.COM
From: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin
Subject: Re: What action updates a file's ACCESS time?
Keywords: file access time
Message-ID: <109827@convex.convex.com>
Date: 4 Dec 90 19:29:44 GMT
References: <331@twg.bc.ca> <1990Nov23.102257.10747@cnix.uucp> <893@jonlab.UUCP>
Sender: news@convex.com
Reply-To: tchrist@convex.COM (Tom Christiansen)
Organization: CONVEX Software Development, Richardson, TX
Lines: 18

In article <893@jonlab.UUCP> jon@jonlab.UUCP (Jon H. LaBadie) writes:
:Note also that write's to a file require a read first.  You may want to
:write one character.  But disks transfer data in blocks.  Thus, to
:write your one character, the block it will be written in must be read
:into memory.  You will "write" your one character into that memory
:buffer and the entire block will be written to disk.

:Thus writes also update access times.

Well, that depends.  On a Sun, it does; on a Vax (running 4.3) or a Convex
(running basically 4.3 on the insides), it does not.  So I wouldn't say
that write ALWAYS udpates access times.  It depends on your system.

--tom
--
Tom Christiansen		tchrist@convex.com	convex!tchrist
"With a kernel dive, all things are possible, but it sure makes it hard
 to look at yourself in the mirror the next morning."  -me