Re: mv datebug in mv (coreutils) 5.2.1

[Bob Proulx]

address@hidden wrote:
>    The date bug of mv is still present in
>          mv (coreutils) 5.2.1
> distributed with Fedore Core 3. When superuser moves a
> directory into a another directory, the date of the former
> directory changes to the current date.

The date of the directory is updated whenever there is a change in the
contents.  One of the files in the directory is the ".." entry.  The
".." entry points to the parent of the current directory.  Moving a
directory will cause the previous ".." to be replaced with a new and
different ".." file.  Therefore the timestamp is updated.  This is not
a bug.  This is correct behavior.  Here is an example.

  mkdir /tmp/adir1
  mkdir /tmp/adir2
  mkdir /tmp/adir1/anotherdir
  ls -ldiog /tmp/adir1/anotherdir/..
  1068004 drwxr-xr-x  3 80 2005-06-13 00:08 /tmp/adir1/anotherdir/..
  mv /tmp/adir1/anotherdir /tmp/adir2/
  ls -ldiog /tmp/adir2/anotherdir/..
  1141039 drwxr-xr-x  3 80 2005-06-13 00:09 /tmp/adir2/anotherdir/..

Note the change in inode numbers.  The ".." entry is updated to point
to the new parent directory.

Bob