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

[Ron]

Giles Malet wrote on 2025-11-12 13:56:

> Noticeably absent here is the file creation time.
> 
> struct stat {
>      ...
>      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
>  };


There's a newer `statx` system call that is available:

`man statx`

struct statx {
   ...
   /* The following fields are file timestamps */
   struct statx_timestamp stx_atime;  /* Last access */
   struct statx_timestamp stx_btime;  /* *Creation* */
   struct statx_timestamp stx_ctime;  /* Last status change */
   struct statx_timestamp stx_mtime;  /* Last modification */
   ...
   }


I emboldened the Creation struct on the 3rd from last line.


I'm guessing GNU's `find` v4.9.0 doesn't support that, even though it's 
mentioned in `man find`:

 > This  directive  produces  an empty string if the underlying operating
 > system or filesystem does not support birth times.

A wee bit misleading, as it seems `stat` and `ls` report birth times, so 
OS and FS support present.


That is, if I'm understanding everything correctly? Not supported by 
`stat` call, but by `statx`, a Linux specific thing. I'd have expected 
GNU to support that.


General search for "birth" on the GNU `find` mailing list archive:

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/cgi-bin/namazu.cgi?query=birth&submit=Search%21&idxname=bug-findutils&max=20&result=normal&sort=date%3Alate


A somewhat recent thread about Linux statx:

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-findutils/2024-05/msg00086.html


Thanks Giles