CODEWITHSUNDEEP
unix
neorc
neorc

Reputation: 277

What timestamp will be changed when I rename a file on UNIX

Or any other suggestions, I just want to check whether a file was renamed at a given time.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 2319

Answers (2)

Łukasz Rajchel
Łukasz Rajchel

Reputation: 331

When you rename a file, out of its MAC times only the C (change) time changes:

[luke@ll test]$ touch file_time
[luke@ll test]$ stat file_time 
  File: 'file_time'
  Size: 0               Blocks: 0          IO Block: 4096   regular empty file
Device: fd04h/64772d    Inode: 33845249    Links: 1
Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--)  Uid: ( 1000/    luke)   Gid: ( 1000/    luke)
Context: unconfined_u:object_r:user_home_t:s0
Access: 2018-01-30 18:09:48.157529527 +0100
Modify: 2018-01-30 18:09:48.157529527 +0100
Change: 2018-01-30 18:09:48.157529527 +0100
 Birth: -
[luke@ll test]$ mv -iv file_time file_time2
'file_time' -> 'file_time2'
[luke@ll test]$ stat file_time2 
  File: 'file_time2'
  Size: 0               Blocks: 0          IO Block: 4096   regular empty file
Device: fd04h/64772d    Inode: 33845249    Links: 1
Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--)  Uid: ( 1000/    luke)   Gid: ( 1000/    luke)
Context: unconfined_u:object_r:user_home_t:s0
Access: 2018-01-30 18:09:48.157529527 +0100
Modify: 2018-01-30 18:09:48.157529527 +0100
Change: 2018-01-30 18:09:58.033633333 +0100
 Birth: -

Upvotes: 2

Kyle Kanos
Kyle Kanos

Reputation: 3264

After you mv the file to its new name, touch the file. This will change the time stamp. As an example, I created 3 files a, b, and c (via touch a b c)

23:11:50 --> ls -l
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:11 a
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:11 b
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:11 c
23:11:52 --> mv a aa
23:12:18 --> ls -l
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:11 aa
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:11 b
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:11 c
23:12:21 --> touch aa
23:12:47 --> ls -l
total 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:12 aa
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:11 b
-rw-rw-r-- 1 kkanos kkanos 0 Oct  3 23:11 c

Clearly a was mv'd to aa with the original time stamp, then touch'd to get the new time stamp.

Upvotes: 1

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