Timestamps of directories 1

[ddrillich]

Good Day,

I'm looking at a certain directory. It shows -

[appdev@sbkj2kedws01 staging]$ \ls -lt
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 2 appadmin

http://www 4096

Aug 29 08:28 barrons
drwxr-xr-x 2 appadmin

http://www 4096

Aug 29 08:28 wsj

Within the barrons and wsj directories, there are files from Sep 12. Shouldn't the file stamp of the parent directory, carry the latest timestamp of its children?

Regards,
Dan

 

[mrjazz]

Hi Dan,
a directory is only a folder for a LIST of files that are more or less logically related - therefore the NAMES are grouped together in that specific directory. Or in other words: directories are just metadata to make things more organized (no matter where they are physically)
So if you modify a file within a directory then the list of files is still the same (that means the modification time of the directory is not updated).
Cases when a directory modification time will change is when the file list changes:
- if a new file is created "in" that directory.
- if a file is removed "from" that directory or moved "into" another directory.
- if a file "in" that directory is renamed.
(I put the "" around "in" "from" "into" because the directory does not hold the actual data.
HTH,
mrjazz

 

[ddrillich]

Thank you mrjazz.