Why does "file" change the creation time on some Unix systems?

[Guy Harris]

 >>It doesn't refer to *ANY* "creation" time, it refers to the inode change
 >>time.  If your manual says it refers to the creation time, either your
 >>manual is wrong or you're running a pretty bizarre version of UNIX.
 >
 >     Well, then, Guy, I guess you can call 4.3 BSD+NFS "a pretty bizarre
 >version of UNIX"; to wit, I quote part of the standard ls(1) man page:
 >
 >	-c   Use time of file creation for sorting or printing.

Uhh, please note that I said that "either your manual is wrong or you're
running a pretty bizarre version of UNIX"; the 4.3 BSD manual is simply
wrong - it's *NOT* the bloody creation time, period, end of discussion -
so unless as part of folding in NFS the folders added a creation time
(*and* screwed up "ls" to have the "-c" flag print the creation time),
their manual is wrong as well.