[TAG] Question about file mtime on linux

[Suramya Tomar]

Hi Everyone,
I have a question for you about file mtime(modify
time) on linux. Does the mtime stamp of a file change
as soon as a process starts modifying the file or does
it change it after the change is done?

The reason I am interested in this is that I am
writing a perl script which is supposed to monitor a
file for changes and as soon as the change is done run
another script which processes the changed file. I
don't want
the second script to run before the file change is
complete(Which would happen if the mtime changes as
soon as the modification starts).

So how would I check that the file change is done?One
way would be to keep checking in a loop if the mtime
changed if it did goto sleep and check again after a
few seconds, keep repeating this until the mtime stop
changing. But in my opinion this is a stupid way of
doing this so I am hoping one of you has a better way
of doing it.

Thanks for the help.

- Suramya



		
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