[Box Backup-dev] Re: [Box Backup] ChrisMerge_1828

[Peter Jalajas, TebucoSafe Backups]

Hi Ben,

--- Ben Summers <ben at fluffy.co.uk> wrote:

> Chris Wilson wrote:
> > On Tue, 18 Sep 2007, E.W. Peter Jalajas wrote:
> >
> >> 00000074 -d---- 1969-12-31T19:00:00 00000 SOLAR
> >
> > Ben, why is it that we zero the modification time on directories? Just
> > because we don't diff/patch them?
> 
> mtime on a directory is not useful, and would result in lots of  
> updates to metadata in the parent directory on the store.
> 
> The underlying zero time should probably not be printed for  
> directories. Spaces to pad?

Thanks, Ben, I think I understand.  It'll take some getting used to, though, to see directory
listings without datestamps (reflecting the last time a file was changed immediately below). 
Depending upon the user's need at the time, I think I recall that sometimes it's nice to know that
one directory in a listing at a particular level is much "older" than another.  But I have no idea
about the ramifications of tracking such info.

Rather than padding with spaces, perhaps use periods or dashes to help the reader's eye connect
the IDs and flags to the directory name.  Periods might be less "busy", but dashes would be more
consistent with the dashes in the flag set.

Thanks again, Ben,
Pete