Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!clyde!ima!minya!jc
From: jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: dump/restore
Keywords: cpio is not a real backup program
Message-ID: <117@minya.UUCP>
Date: 8 Nov 88 20:17:41 GMT
References: <178@celerity.UUCP> <12433@steinmetz.ge.com> <77@usl-pc.usl.edu> <8470@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Organization: (none)
Lines: 19

In article <8470@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>, mangler@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Don Speck) writes:
> In article <8373@alice.UUCP>, debra@alice.UUCP (Paul De Bra) writes:
> >	     since there is no way to reset the create-time on a Unix system

Of course not, since Unix systems don't keep the creation time of a file.
There is no field in an inode that contains this information.

> restor (counterpart of V7/SysIII/4.1bsd dump) would restore ctimes,

Yet another person who thinks 'ctime' means "creation time".  It doesn't.
According to my Sys/V manual, the st_ctime field in an inode is the "Time
of last file status change".  In other words, it's the last time the inode
was changed (e.g., to change permissions).  It isn't the creation time.

-- 
John Chambers <{adelie,ima,maynard,mit-eddie}!minya!{jc,root}> (617/484-6393)

[Any errors in the above are due to failures in the logic of the keyboard,
not in the fingers that did the typing.]