Uses for access time

[Daniel R. Levy]

In article <4054 at mtgzz.UUCP>, avr at mtgzz.UUCP (XMRP50000[jcm]-a.v.reed) writes:
> Unfortunately, "access time" is NOT updated when an executable is
> executed.

You should qualify your statement with "not ALWAYS updated", unless you specify
a specific system.  This machine obviously updates access time upon execution:

$ ls -ul /bin/cat
-rwxrwxr-x   1 bin      bin        10356 May  7 20:38 /bin/cat
$ ls -ul /bin/cat
-rwxrwxr-x   1 bin      bin        10356 May  7 20:38 /bin/cat
$ /bin/cat /etc/TIMEZONE
TZ=CDT5
export TZ
$ ls -ul /bin/cat
-rwxrwxr-x   1 bin      bin        10356 May  7 20:42 /bin/cat
$ uname -a
ttrdc ttrdc 2.0v3 1208 3B-20S

Gurus:  Which systems DO update access time upon execution (presuming it's
possible at all, e.g., not on a readonly filesystem)?  Which systems don't?
-- 
|------------Dan Levy------------|  Path: ihnp4,<most AT&T machines>!ttrdc!levy
|              AT&T              |  Weinberg's Principle:  An expert is a
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|--------Skokie, Illinois--------|  sweeping on to the grand fallacy.