What does the output of return os.lstat(logFile)[ST_CTIME] mean?
Hi, I am trying to get the creation time of a file to be able to correlate it's content timestamps with other log files. In order to get the creation time of the file one a Linux machine i used: return os.lstat(logFile)[ST_CTIME] That returns to me something like: 1279620166 I would like to know the meaning of this number. Is it in seconds since the epoch? Or is some other respresentation? Thanks, Albert -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/What-does-the-output-of-return-os.lstat%28logFile%29-ST_CTIME--mean--tp29268605p29268605.html Sent from the Python - python-list mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What does the output of return os.lstat(logFile)[ST_CTIME] mean?
On Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:54:23 -0700, alberttresens wrote: Hi, I am trying to get the creation time of a file to be able to correlate it's content timestamps with other log files. In order to get the creation time of the file one a Linux machine i used: You're out of luck. Neither Unix nor Linux store the creation time of files, at least not on any file system I know of. It stores three timestamps: mtime, ctime, and atime. atime is the simple one -- it is access time, or when the file was last read. mtime is modification time -- it is when the file *contents* were last changed. But ctime is NOT creation time, as many people imagine. It is change time, and it changes whenever EITHER the file contents are changed, OR when the file metadata (permissions, owner, name, etc.) change. So any time mtime changes, so does ctime. But not visa versa. return os.lstat(logFile)[ST_CTIME] That returns to me something like: 1279620166 I would like to know the meaning of this number. Is it in seconds since the epoch? Yes. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What does the output of return os.lstat(logFile)[ST_CTIME] mean?
Hi, thanks for the reply. But what i am more concerned about, as I am trying to correlate logs, is what is the timestamp: 1279620166 mean? Is it seconds since the epoch or the ISO time in seconds? Any idea? Thanks a lot!! Steven D'Aprano-7 wrote: On Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:54:23 -0700, alberttresens wrote: Hi, I am trying to get the creation time of a file to be able to correlate it's content timestamps with other log files. In order to get the creation time of the file one a Linux machine i used: You're out of luck. Neither Unix nor Linux store the creation time of files, at least not on any file system I know of. It stores three timestamps: mtime, ctime, and atime. atime is the simple one -- it is access time, or when the file was last read. mtime is modification time -- it is when the file *contents* were last changed. But ctime is NOT creation time, as many people imagine. It is change time, and it changes whenever EITHER the file contents are changed, OR when the file metadata (permissions, owner, name, etc.) change. So any time mtime changes, so does ctime. But not visa versa. return os.lstat(logFile)[ST_CTIME] That returns to me something like: 1279620166 I would like to know the meaning of this number. Is it in seconds since the epoch? Yes. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/What-does-the-output-of-return-os.lstat%28logFile%29-ST_CTIME--mean--tp29268605p29268871.html Sent from the Python - python-list mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: What does the output of return os.lstat(logFile)[ST_CTIME] mean?
On 07/26/2010 07:24 PM, alberttresens wrote: Hi, thanks for the reply. Alas, you didn't actually read it: But what i am more concerned about, as I am trying to correlate logs, is what is the timestamp: 1279620166 mean? Is it seconds since the epoch or the ISO time in seconds? Any idea? Thanks a lot!! [...] I would like to know the meaning of this number. Is it in seconds since the epoch? Yes. You quoted the answer to your question in the same e-mail. fascinating. A little side note: atime is the simple one -- it is access time, or when the file was last read. You should never rely on this, though: some file systems don't store this (I think) and many users/sysadmins actually disable this (mount -o noatime) for performance reasons. (Also, on an SSD, I imagine enabling atime, and with it many, many additional writes, could noticeably detriment disk lifetime) -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
