Re: time difference

[rob_au]

in reply to time difference

Untested code follows ... Update: Bugger, caught out on inode change/creation time - Remember that (stat _)[10] (or -C _) is not file creation time, but rather inode change time.

sub diff {

    return -1 unless -e $_[0];
    my @result = ();
    my $diff = ((stat _)[10]) - ((stat _)[9]);
    foreach my $time ((86400, 3600, 60, 1)) {

        push @result, $diff % $time;
        $diff -= $result[-1];
    }
    return @result;
}

[mifflin]

Is there a reliable way to get the true file creation time given that -C (and stat 10) is not it?

[merlyn]

Not in Unix. The Unix founders argue (and I agree) that "creation time" is at best an odd concept. But you didn't say on what platform, so you may be able to get a "fake" creation time proposed by your platform.

[BrowserUk]

The Unix founders argue (and I agree) that "creation time" is at best an odd concept.

Care to explain that?

dir thisfile
File not found.
echo . > thisfile
dir thisfile
01/08/2005  06:38                 4 thisfile

The file was created. The time tells you when it was created. How is that false or ambiguous?