Re: [sot] file times / file metadata

From	"Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: [sot] file times / file metadata
Date	2017-11-21 21:05 +0100
Organization	Informatimago
Message-ID	<m2bmjve6tv.fsf@informatimago.com> (permalink)
References	<5a91718b-b272-4cdf-adfd-8f6777851b23@googlegroups.com>

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fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> writes:

> by [sot] i mean somewhat off topic 
> (but imo not quite as there are some fundaments of programming not
> strictly encompassed by c maybe (things like ascii, aditors, asm,
> processors, linux/mac/windows etc) but important to c coder)
>
> the question is about file times, it
> comes back from dos times i think 
> (i personally used dos 6.22 for a while only and remember this as a crap) - well maybe it is not worth even mentioning dos anyway but still
> on windows and probably other systems too one can still have three (?) file times for each file those seem to be:
>
> - create time
> - modify time
> - last acces time
>
> i must say i never learned to fully use those times
>
> many questions could be stated here one is:
> - how those times can be used? are they really usefull? when?

Use the find command:

    find / -mtime -1 -print
    # will list the files modified in the last 24 hours.


    find / -size +50M -atime +300 -print
    # will list the files of more than 50MB that haven't been accessed
    # in more than 300 days.  Good candidates for archival…

    find / -ctime -7 -print
    # will list the files created in the past week, perhaps you don't
    # remember the name of that important document, but you know you
    # created it during the past week?


> (note im mostly interested in windows maybe but maybe it has some more general rules, also fitting in unix/linux and other systems?)
>
> other question is
> - what is really responsible for updating those times? for example if
> i use fread/fwrite etc i assume they are  automatically updated by
> some system layer which is called by fread/fwrite functions (this is
> probably some system dll or maybe even hdd driver but more probably
> system dll i think)

The kernel. (More specifically, the file system module).


> i guess those times may also be 'faken' programmatically though i also
> maybe may assume that they are mostly not faken so the information
> they carry is reliable?  (if so they for example could be used in such
> areas as malvare detection etc?)

Definitely.  If you want more reliable time stamps, you will have to go
thru the blockchain.  Given the processing cost, you would do that only
for documents it is really important to timestamp.




-- 
__Pascal J. Bourguignon
http://www.informatimago.com

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[sot] file times / file metadata fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-11-21 11:50 -0800
  Re: [sot] file times / file metadata "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2017-11-21 21:05 +0100
    Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-11-22 09:15 +1300
    Re: [sot] file times / file metadata fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-11-21 12:23 -0800
      Re: [sot] file times / file metadata fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-11-21 12:42 -0800
        Re: [sot] file times / file metadata fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-11-21 13:01 -0800
        Re: [sot] file times / file metadata "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2017-11-21 22:04 +0100
          Re: [sot] file times / file metadata fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-11-21 13:17 -0800
          Re: [sot] file times / file metadata fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-11-21 13:22 -0800
            Re: [sot] file times / file metadata "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2017-11-21 23:23 +0100
              Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-11-22 11:34 +1300
              Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2017-11-21 17:34 -0500
              Re: [sot] file times / file metadata fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-11-21 16:16 -0800
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2017-11-22 01:44 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-11-22 14:10 +1300
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata gordonb.eiy78@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) - 2017-11-28 01:55 -0600
          Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-22 11:07 +0100
            Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-22 09:13 -0500
              Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-22 15:50 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata jameskuyper@verizon.net - 2017-11-22 07:08 -0800
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-22 16:22 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-11-22 15:37 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-11-22 15:43 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-22 15:01 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-11-23 17:52 +1300
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-23 14:12 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-11-24 08:28 +1300
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-24 08:52 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-23 09:39 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-23 14:17 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2017-11-28 16:44 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-28 14:23 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2017-11-28 19:35 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-30 15:54 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2017-11-30 21:43 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2017-11-28 19:42 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2017-11-28 20:13 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-30 15:57 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2017-11-30 21:17 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata jameskuyper@verizon.net - 2017-11-28 09:35 -0800
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-11-29 08:24 +1300
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-11-29 08:27 +1300
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-28 14:29 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-29 09:51 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-30 15:59 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-29 10:00 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata "James R. Kuyper" <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2017-11-29 09:11 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-29 15:28 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata "James R. Kuyper" <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2017-11-29 11:32 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2017-11-23 15:05 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-24 10:20 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex@attglobal.net> - 2017-11-24 09:05 -0500
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2017-11-24 22:50 -0600
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2017-11-28 16:59 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-11-29 08:26 +1300
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-29 10:10 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2017-11-29 21:01 +0000
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-11-29 23:13 +0100
                Re: [sot] file times / file metadata cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2017-11-30 17:26 +0000
              Re: [sot] file times / file metadata fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2017-11-22 08:00 -0800
              Re: [sot] file times / file metadata "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2017-11-22 17:11 +0100
            Re: [sot] file times / file metadata "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2017-11-22 16:51 +0100
              Re: [sot] file times / file metadata scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2017-11-22 16:36 +0000

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