Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!ggs
From: ggs@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Griff Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: 4.3BSD rename() changes ctime
Summary: needed for reliable file restore
Keywords: ctime dump rename
Message-ID: <10491@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Date: 4 Aug 88 14:31:05 GMT
References: <26657@oliveb.olivetti.com>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 20

In article <26657@oliveb.olivetti.com>, jerry@olivey.UUCP writes:
> Prior to the "rename" system call the mv command would change the ctime
> of a file even though the resulting data AND inode were identical.
...
> ... now that we have rename, it still does!
...
> Is this a bug or is there some justification for rename updating the
> ctime?

I think this is necessary to make the "r" option of the "restore"
command work.  When doing a full "r" restore with incrementals, there
must be records of all changes to the name(s) of an inode.  The records
are kept by having "dump" write images of all directories that point to
changed files.  If the inode isn't marked as changed by "rename",
"dump" has no way of knowing that the directory must be dumped.
-- 
Griff Smith	AT&T (Bell Laboratories), Murray Hill
Phone:		1-201-582-7736
UUCP:		{allegra|ihnp4}!ulysses!ggs
Internet:	ggs@ulysses.att.com