Package: util-linux Version: 2.36.1-7 Severity: wishlist Dear maintainer,
for sparsifying files with blocks of zeros, it's quite convenient to use "fallocate -d". As of current bullseye util-linux/2.36.1-7 on ext4, this updates their atime, mtime, and ctime, but preserves their "birth time" (btime). I'd like "fallocate -d" to always preserve mtime. To my understanding of MAC times, mtime should only then be updated when the content of the file gets modified, which "fallocate -d" definitely never does. "fallocate -d" should: * update atime when reading > 0 bytes (which it does) * preserve mtime (which it _falsely_ updates) * preserve btime (which it does) * ctime: uncertain. (currently it updates it) Whether "fallocate -d" should update or preserve ctime seems a good question to me. From my understanding of MAC times, I'd prefer a command-line switch to preserve or update ctime if desired, and to update it by default. So here's my wishlist item for util-linux: Please let "fallocate -d" adhere to standards and always preserve mtime, and please add a command-line option to handle ctime as desired by the user. Please bear in mind that the current behavior regarding mtime counteracts common (or at least my) understanding. Please forward this to upstream. Shouldn't be a great deal. Best Kevin
