Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!mailrus!uwmcsd1!nic.MR.NET!umn-cs!umn-d-ub!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!brown
From: brown@nicmad.UUCP (Mr. Video)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: archive bit
Keywords: say what?
Message-ID: <2916@nicmad.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jul 88 02:42:09 GMT
References: <4873@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> <699@clsib21.UUCP>
Reply-To: brown@nicmad.UUCP (Mr. Video)
Distribution: na
Organization: Mr. Video's Hangout
Lines: 18

In article <699@clsib21.UUCP> scott@clsib21.UUCP (Scott P. Herzig) writes:
<In article <4873@killer.DALLAS.TX.US>, bobc@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Bob Calbridge) writes:
<> Okay, I give up.  What is the function of the archive bit?
<
<The bit is set by the BACKUP program to indicate whether or not a file
<has been archived.  This makes it easy to spot when a backup has been
<done and what's been saved.

Sorry, you got it backwards.  This bit is set whenever a file is written to,
created, copied to another spot, etc.  It is a flag that can tell backup
programs that this file needs to be saved.  It is reset by appropriate
backup programs when the backup of the file is complete.

This bit allows you to do selective backups, ie, only files that have changed,
otherwise known as the incremental backup.
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