Re: [PATCH 02/18] xstat: Add a pair of system calls to make extended file stats available [ver #6] [LWN.net]

From:		Linus Torvalds <torvalds-de/tnXTf+JLsfHDXvbKv3WD2FQJk+8+b-AT-public.gmane.org>
To:		Volker.Lendecke-3ekOc4rQMZmzQB+pC5nmwQ-AT-public.gmane.org
Subject:		Re: [PATCH 02/18] xstat: Add a pair of system calls to make extended file stats available [ver #6]
Date:		Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:14:42 -0700
Message-ID:		<AANLkTikBCXK6uEwWq4f0LvpdoKCPs3jvyFa4Zw4e2J_7@mail.gmail.com>
Cc:		David Howells <dhowells-H+wXaHxf7aLQT0dZR+AlfA-AT-public.gmane.org>, Jan Engelhardt <jengelh-nopoi9nDyk+ELgA04lAiVw-AT-public.gmane.org>, linux-cifs-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA-AT-public.gmane.org, linux-nfs-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA-AT-public.gmane.org, samba-technical-w/Ol4Ecudpl8XjKLYN78aQ-AT-public.gmane.org, linux-kernel-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA-AT-public.gmane.org, viro-RmSDqhL/yNMiFSDQTTA3OLVCufUGDwFn-AT-public.gmane.org, linux-fsdevel-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA-AT-public.gmane.org, linux-ext4-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA-AT-public.gmane.org
Archive-link:		Article, Thread

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 5:17 AM, Volker Lendecke
<Volker.Lendecke-3ekOc4rQMZmzQB+pC5nmwQ@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 01:14:47PM +0100, David Howells wrote:
>> Jan Engelhardt <jengelh-nopoi9nDyk+ELgA04lAiVw@public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>
>> > Linux already has a creation time field, it's called otime (there is no "b"
>> > in "creation"), and you will find scattered fragments of that all over the
>> > kernel (foremost, fs/jfs/, now btrfs, and I also notice sysvipc having
>> > something with that name).
>>
>> It is?  It's called crtime in Ext4.  st_btime, however, would be compatible
>> with BSD's stat, and Samba would just use it by way of autoconf magic if it
>> appeared.
>
> Samba has the following check:
>
> # recent FreeBSD, NetBSD have creation timestamps called birthtime:
> AC_CHECK_MEMBERS([struct stat.st_birthtimespec.tv_nsec])
> AC_CHECK_MEMBERS([struct stat.st_birthtime], AC_CHECK_MEMBERS([struct stat.st_birthtimensec]))
>
> and the supporting code around that. "birth" might also be
> where the "b" comes from :-)

Oh wow. And all of this just convinces me that we should _not_ do any
of this, since clearly it's all totally useless and people can't even
agree on a name.

Let's wait five years and see if there is actually any consensus on it
being needed and used at all, rather than rush into something just
because "we can".

                       Linus

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