message file create times

[Andrew Morgan]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003, Phil Chambers wrote:

> I asked this question along with others some time ago and this part was never
> answered.  can anyone tell me what goes through inboxes and folders re-setting the
> create times?
>
> If I look at an individual user's filespace I see the create times of all the
> message files and cyrus.xxx files set to the same time, usually some time in the
> middle of the night.  I can't see a connection with the event times in cyrus.config.
>
> I would be pleased to have an explanation.

Are you talking about the ctime or the mtime of the files?  You should
know that there is no such thing as "create" time.  From the stat(2) man
page:

       The field st_mtime is changed by file modifications,  e.g.
       by  mknod(2),  truncate(2), utime(2) and write(2) (of more
       than zero bytes).  Moreover, st_mtime of  a  directory  is
       changed  by  the  creation  or  deletion  of files in that
       directory.  The st_mtime field is not changed for  changes
       in owner, group, hard link count, or mode.

       The  field  st_ctime  is  changed by writing or by setting
       inode information (i.e., owner, group, link  count,  mode,
       etc.).

By default, ls will show you the mtime of files.

On my Cyrus system, message file mtimes are not updated nightly.  Perhaps
you have some backup process running amok?  :)

	Andy