Re: Why isn't the "last access time" part of the filesystem library?

From: richard_fanta (richard.fanta_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-05-07 10:00:08

--- In Boost-Users_at_[hidden], Beman Dawes <bdawes_at_a...> wrote:
> At 01:02 AM 5/6/2003, richard_fanta wrote:
> 
>  >Looking at the filesystem library and the attributes work in 
boost-
>  >sandbox, I don't immediately see "last access time" being 
available
>  >for a file or directory.
>  >
>  >"Last access time" was included in Dietmar Kuehl's original 
dir_it.
>  >
>  >Can someone kindly tell me why this was removed?  It's highly 
useful,
>  >and part of every filesystem that I've seen.
> 
> ISO/IEC 9660:1999 filesystems don't supply a "last access" time 
stamp, 
> perhaps because the original uses were on write-once media.

Which filesystems adhere to this spec other than CD-ROMs?

> Perhaps we should do more to support attribute query within the 
main 
> library, but I don't really think we should include any that aren't 
> reliably supported by at least POSIX, Windows, and ISO-9660 systems.

Your point is well made.  However, it does seem odd that a feature 
that is useful for >95% of all typical usage shouldn't be in the 
library.

Other options:
  -For ISO 9660 filesystems, use the time created as the "last 
access" time stamp.
  -Throw a "FeatureNotSupportedException" or somesuch.

Richard