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From: avolio@decuac.UUCP (Frederick M. Avolio)
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Re: access(2) vs. st_atime
Message-ID: <751@decuac.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Jan-86 08:23:21 EST
Article-I.D.: decuac.751
Posted: Fri Jan  3 08:23:21 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jan-86 04:57:13 EST
References: <6002@elsie.UUCP>
Organization: ULTRIX Applications Center, MD
Lines: 14
Keywords: access
Summary: Access is "Can I access?"

In article <6002@elsie.UUCP>, ado@elsie.UUCP (Arthur David Olson) writes:
>     ls -lu /usr/spool/uucppublic/.hushlogin
>     -rw-r--r-- 1 uucp          0 Mar  6  1984 /usr/spool/uucppublic/.hushlogin
> Now granted, doing an "stat" call on a file ought not change the access
> time of the file ...  However...shouldn't an "access" change the "last
> access" time for the file?

Access(2) is used to "determine the accessibility of a file" (from the
Ultrix-32 manual).  So, like stat(2) et al. it does not open the file, but
reads the inode information and, in the case of access(2), lets the user
know if the file is accessible in the mode requested.  It does not
try to access the file.
-- 
Fred @ DEC Ultrix Applications Center    {decvax,seismo,cbosgd}!decuac!avolio