Re: [Duplicity-talk] changed files not being backed up

[Roy Badami]

On 23/12/2011 14:55, Kenneth Loafman wrote:
> Change time, ctime, is for any modification of the file, i.e. content 
> or metadata.  Modification time, mtime, only registers the change of 
> content on the inode.  So, if we go to ctime, the file will be backed 
> up if any metadata changes, which is probably the way it should be.
>
> However, I'm willing to bet some will argue the current check is 
> correct.  I seem to remember this discussion happening before.

It should probably be configurable.

e.g. some backup systems have the option to automatically touch atimes 
back after backing up the files.  If such a backup system is in use on a 
system, the ctimes will be constantly updated (touching the atime back 
will update the ctime).  So if duplicity was being run on a system where 
such backups were also performed, relying on ctimes  would be undesirable.

roy