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From: aegl@root.co.uk (Tony Luck)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: BSD vi/view resets inode ctime: why?
Message-ID: <244@root44.root.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 13-Mar-87 07:16:59 EST
Article-I.D.: root44.244
Posted: Fri Mar 13 07:16:59 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 16-Mar-87 04:08:44 EST
References: <4801@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: aegl@root44.UUCP (Tony Luck)
Organization: Root Computers Ltd., London, England
Lines: 12

Under 4.2 it did this because vi uses fsync(2) whenever it reads or
writes a file. The fsync system call updates the ctime field in the
stat structure. I guess this is still the case in 4.3.

I never understood why vi 'fsync'd while *reading* a file, nor why
fsync had any effect on a file descriptor that was only open for
reading, nor what real reliability gain was produced by using fsync
in vi at all.

I "fixed" this by just removing the call from vi.

Tony Luck - Technical manager (aegl@root.co.uk or ...!ukc!root44!aegl)