[kwlug-disc] Reminder: bash's find has option -exec

[Giles Malet]

On 12/11/2025 14:01, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> I think a "file's status" is just the inode.

The ctime changes when anything in the inode changes, which is 
essentially the stuff returned by the stat(3) system call. On my system 
that man pages gives the struct below. So changing the permissions 
(chmod), hard linking a file to it, changing the owner, group, or the 
size will change it. The latter presumably includes a modification time 
change too.

Changing any file hard linked to the original will update all "files" 
concerned, as they all share one inode, pointed to by each file's 
directory entry.

Noticeably absent here is the file creation time.

g


       struct stat {
            dev_t      st_dev;      /* ID of device containing file */
            ino_t      st_ino;      /* Inode number */
            mode_t     st_mode;     /* File type and mode */
            nlink_t    st_nlink;    /* Number of hard links */
            uid_t      st_uid;      /* User ID of owner */
            gid_t      st_gid;      /* Group ID of owner */
            dev_t      st_rdev;     /* Device ID (if special file) */
            off_t      st_size;     /* Total size, in bytes */
            blksize_t  st_blksize;  /* Block size for filesystem I/O */
            blkcnt_t   st_blocks;   /* Number of 512 B blocks allocated */

            /* Since POSIX.1-2008, this structure supports nanosecond
               precision for the following timestamp fields.
               For the details before POSIX.1-2008, see VERSIONS. */

            struct timespec  st_atim;  /* Time of last access */
            struct timespec  st_mtim;  /* Time of last modification */
            struct timespec  st_ctim;  /* Time of last status change */

        #define st_atime  st_atim.tv_sec  /* Backward compatibility */
        #define st_mtime  st_mtim.tv_sec
        #define st_ctime  st_ctim.tv_sec
        };