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What is the difference between Modify and Change in stat output? When I run this command:

stat myfile

I am getting two lines with identical timestamps:

Modify: 2015-03-24 12:34:56.12345678
Change: 2015-03-24 12:34:56.12345678

What is the deal?

AlexC
  • 433

1 Answers1

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"Modify" is the timestamp of the last time the file's content has been modified which is often called "mtime".

"Change" is the timestamp of the last time the file's inode has been changed, like by changing permissions, ownership, file name, number of hard links. It's often called "ctime".