Uses for access time

[J_Allen_Schones]

In article <1029 at unmvax.unm.edu> mike at turing.UNM.EDU.UUCP (Michael I. Bushnell) writes:
>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.
>
>[Sad story deleted]
>
>Put this down to YATBF (Yet Another Thing Berkeley Fixed).  On BSD
>4.3, execve properly updates the access time.
[ .signature deleted ]

I have removed all newsgroups except comp.unix.wizards.  I'm certain
the vms and misc folks don't care to hear about this.

As the summary states, the access time under System V, Rel 3.1.2 on a
3B2 is updated when the program is executed.  BTW, I am runngin ksh. 
The following script shows my point.


$ lf
./   ../
$ echo 'echo "This is a test"' > foobar1
$ echo "this file will be catted out" > foobar2
$ lf
./        ../       foobar1   foobar2
$ chmod 755 foobar1
$ type la
la is an alias for /bin/ls -lasiqut
$ la
total 5
 4923    1 -rw-r--r--   1 jal      engr          29 May 17 11:04 foobar2
  315    1 -rwxr-xr-x   1 jal      engr          22 May 17 11:03 foobar1
 1215    2 drwxr-xr-x   9 jal      engr         576 May 17 10:17 ..
 1452    1 drwxrwxrwx   2 jal      engr         112 May  4 15:06 .
$ foobar1
This is a test
$ la # Now foobar1 is the first file printed out.
total 5
  315    1 -rwxr-xr-x   1 jal      engr          22 May 17 11:04 foobar1
 4923    1 -rw-r--r--   1 jal      engr          29 May 17 11:04 foobar2
 1215    2 drwxr-xr-x   9 jal      engr         576 May 17 10:17 ..
 1452    1 drwxrwxrwx   2 jal      engr         112 May  4 15:06 .
$ chown bin foobar1 # Was it because I owned foobar1?
$ cat foobar2
this file will be catted out
$ la # Now foobar2 is the first file printed out.
total 5
 4923    1 -rw-r--r--   1 jal      engr          29 May 17 11:04 foobar2
  315    1 -rwxr-xr-x   1 bin      engr          22 May 17 11:04 foobar1
 1215    2 drwxr-xr-x   9 jal      engr         576 May 17 10:17 ..
 1452    1 drwxrwxrwx   2 jal      engr         112 May  4 15:06 .
$ foobar1
This is a test
$ la # Now foobar1 is the first file printed out.
total 5
  315    1 -rwxr-xr-x   1 bin      engr          22 May 17 11:05 foobar1
 4923    1 -rw-r--r--   1 jal      engr          29 May 17 11:04 foobar2
 1215    2 drwxr-xr-x   9 jal      engr         576 May 17 10:17 ..
 1452    1 drwxrwxrwx   2 jal      engr         112 May  4 15:06 .
$ exit

Process shell finished

Sorry for the length of the article.

-- 
J. Allen Schones -- AT&T -- Oklahoma City Works
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