Re: What is the difference between "Change time" and "Modify time"?

[Paul Hartman <paul hartman+gentoo gmail com>]

On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 2:10 PM, Theodore Kilgore
<kilgota banach math auburn edu> wrote:
> The question in the header refers, of course, to the options found under
> "Sort Order." Frankly, I can not tell the difference between the meanings
> of these two options -- unless perhaps I would take a deep dive into the
> source code. The man page does not seem to provide enlightenment on this
> point, either.

Basically, Modify Time is when the contents of the file have been
changed, and Change Time is when anything has been done to the file
(copied/moved/renamed/changed permissions/etc)

Modify time is basically the timestamp of the file, which can be
artificial (for example, by using the "touch" command), but change
time (if filesystem supports it) shows the actual timestamp when the
file was last changed (which includes changing the contents, as well
as file being written/copied/moved/renamed/chmod etc).

For example, sort a directory by Change Time. Now, rename a file. It
should be moved to the bottom of the list (because it has been
changed). The Modify Time won't change because you didn't touch the
contents of the file.

Modifiy Time is usually the common timestamp, that is shown in
directory listings and in the MC default panel configuration. So for
example if you unzip a file, the modified time will be set to the
timestamp that was saved in the archive, but the change time will be
the time that you unzipped the file.

The "stat" command will show you the various times on record for a
file. The "touch" command lets you set them to different values.