[Python-bugs-list] [ python-Bugs-827902 ] ctime is not creation time

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Bugs item #827902, was opened at 2003-10-22 02:32
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by loewis
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Category: Documentation
Group: Python 2.3
Status: Open
Resolution: Fixed
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Robert Siemer (siemer)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: ctime is not creation time

Initial Comment:
Hi!

http://python.org/doc/current/lib/module-os.path.html
says getctime() returns the creation time. But it
probably returns the ctime, which has nothing to do
with creation.

Bye,
Robert

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>Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2003-10-28 21:26

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I suggest to document all of these: it returns the system's
ctime, which, on some systems (e.g. Unix) is change time,
and, on others (e.g. Windows), is creation time.

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Comment By: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger)
Date: 2003-10-28 07:22

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Hmm, it looks like there is more that one answer.

>From Linux man pages:  ctime is the "inode change time"

>From MSDN specs:  ctime "Indicates the creation time for
this storage, stream, or byte array". 

We can either document both or just put that getctime
returns the operating system's ctime field for open storage,
a stream, or a byte-array.


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Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2003-10-28 00:57

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So what about the issue that ctime really does mean
"creation time" on Windows?

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Comment By: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger)
Date: 2003-10-27 21:05

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Fixed.
See Doc/lib/libposixpath.tex 1.37 and 1.36.12.1.


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Comment By: Johan M. Hahn (johahn)
Date: 2003-10-23 10:14

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On Windows 2000 os.path.ctime (-> ntpath.getctime -> 
ntpath.stat.st_ctime) returns creation time.

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Comment By: Robert Siemer (siemer)
Date: 2003-10-23 00:11

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ctime is the time of last modification of file status
information.
Means: gets updated on everything... (-:
There is no way on classic Linux-Filesystems to get the
creation time.


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Comment By: Sjoerd Mullender (sjoerd)
Date: 2003-10-22 23:14

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ctime is change time.  Read the manual (stat(2)):
time_t        st_atime;    /* time of last access */
time_t        st_mtime;    /* time of last modification */
time_t        st_ctime;    /* time of last change */


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Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2003-10-22 18:02

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Why do you say ctime has nothing to do with creation? What 
else does ctime indicate?

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