[SOLVED] Access times of some files are not correct?

duyinthee · 2023-02-27 04:03:22

I have some files (especially pdf files) that their access times are not correct.
for example, I have just open file A.pdf and test it.

 folder1]$ stat A.pdf
  File: A.pdf
  Size: 861960    	Blocks: 1688       IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 8,19	Inode: 3031319     Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/     msh)   Gid: ( 1000/     msh)
Access: 2023-02-26 15:36:14.788142723 +0630
Modify: 2023-02-25 09:27:23.279593408 +0630
Change: 2023-02-25 09:30:05.736271310 +0630
 Birth: 2023-02-25 09:27:22.992926722 +0630
 folder1]$ date
Mon Feb 27 10:26:19 AM +0630 2023
 folder1]$

I have many files that their access times are always not correct.

Other files are correct.

 folder2]$ stat C.pdf
  File: C.pdf
  Size: 1418131   	Blocks: 2776       IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 8,19	Inode: 1443129     Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/     msh)   Gid: ( 1000/     msh)
Access: 2023-02-27 10:22:01.944169220 +0630
Modify: 2022-03-11 21:47:56.223994530 +0630
Change: 2022-03-11 21:47:56.223994530 +0630
 Birth: 2022-03-11 21:47:55.730661168 +0630
 folder2]$ date
Mon Feb 27 10:30:32 AM +0630 2023
 folder2]$

Is there anything to adjust in PDF meta data?

Last edited by duyinthee (2023-02-27 08:34:41)

seth · 2023-02-27 07:22:29

Output of

mount

And check https://man.archlinux.org/man/core/util … mount.8.en for (likely) relatime.

duyinthee · 2023-02-27 07:54:14

Thanks for your reply.
Yeah, My fstab is as follows;

# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sdb2
UUID=e59ec286-2e7c-4825-b180-8f7c04780cb3	/         	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 1

# /dev/sdb1
UUID=C892-8658      	/boot     	vfat      	rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro	0 2

# /dev/sdb3
UUID=dd638fe5-7cff-490c-90a7-d6c9e7cec029	/home     	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 2

# /dev/sdb4
# UUID=7388a32e-3e0a-4839-901b-5a5c670c49ba	none      	swap      	defaults  	0 0
UUID=7758a054-724a-49df-bcb1-7dc349a080cd	none      	swap      	defaults  	0 0

# /dev/sda1
UUID=63edf43c-b195-49da-bb5c-9f14c4e01570	/home/username/001HDD     	ext4      	rw,user,noauto,relatime	0 2

So, all of my partitions except swap are set to relatime.
Honestly, I have no idea to change it to which option and am afraid to change it because this machine is being used for work.
As far as I understand, the level of updating access time is highest to lowest at left to right as below;

strictatime, atime, relatime, norelatime, noatime

I don't know which one should I set to?

Last edited by duyinthee (2023-02-27 07:59:15)

seth · 2023-02-27 08:06:00

As far as I understand, the level of updating access time is highest to lowest at left to right as below;

No. Some of themsimply manage kernel config precedence.

I don't know which one should I set to?

Why do you care?
relatime is the most reasonable choice (lowering IO while not actively breaking stuff that relies on timestamp comparism)
If you want to use strictatime for some reason (that you would be able to name) you probably also want lazytime (which is nice for general purposes anyway)

duyinthee · 2023-02-27 08:33:21

Why do you care?

I am trying to open last accessed files very quickly by piping find results into wofi as the following script.

#!/bin/dash
cd ~
open=$(find ~/* -type f -printf "%AF-%AT_%p\n" | sort -r | head -n 10 | awk -F '_' '{print $2}' | wofi -d)
if [ -f "$open" ]; then
    xdg-open "$open" &
else
    notify-send -t 900 " " "clean exit\n_"
fi

And the last file I accessed never show up in the list of Wofi. That's why I am thinking about it.
But anyway, I learned a thing today (thank you) and decided to leave it there as it is as kernel's default at relatime.
I would find other way to open the last accessed file quickly.

seth · 2023-02-27 08:36:44

~/.local/share/recently-used.xbel - but not all applications will update that.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-02-27 04:03:22

[SOLVED] Access times of some files are not correct?

#2 2023-02-27 07:22:29

Re: [SOLVED] Access times of some files are not correct?

#3 2023-02-27 07:54:14

Re: [SOLVED] Access times of some files are not correct?

#4 2023-02-27 08:06:00

Re: [SOLVED] Access times of some files are not correct?

#5 2023-02-27 08:33:21

Re: [SOLVED] Access times of some files are not correct?

#6 2023-02-27 08:36:44

Re: [SOLVED] Access times of some files are not correct?

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