What action updates a file's ACCESS time?

[klaus u schallhorn]

In article <331 at twg.bc.ca> bill at twg.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) writes:
>I would like to know ALL the possible activities that could result in a file's
>access  time (ls -lu) being updated.  I have performed the following, with the
>noted result:
>
[ ... ]
>
>Are  there  any other actions that could be done that would update the  access
>times?  Specifically, if you saw many directories of program source code files
>(over  160  files)  that had an access time between 6 and  7pm  (after  office
>hours),  would you conclude that someone had used an editor and looked at each
>file  within the hour, or would you conclude that the files had been  archived
>to tape or diskette?
>
[ ... ]
>Bill Irwin    -       The Westrheim Group     -    Vancouver, BC, Canada

IMHO access times are changed by accessing a file, be it for reading,
writing or replacing contents of your source files with something sinnister.
Have a look in TFM under find -atime, what it says for directories
accessed by find.

klaus
-- 
George Orwell was an Optimist