Why don't stat, li -lu in ubuntu update file read or copy time?

Question

ubuntu

Why don't stat, li -lu in ubuntu update file read or copy time? Do they just update acces time when writing to a file? How to fix it? Clear cache like in php(clearstatcache())? If yes, how to clean?

Answer 1

The meta-information on the file does not contain the time of its copying. There is atime - access time (moreover, stat itself does not update this information, and this is correct, because otherwise it would overwrite this data). There is ctime - attribute modification time (access rights there). There is mtime - the time of the last modification of the file. If there was an entry to the file, then mtime changes without options.

Answer 2