I have a question about my Unix & Linux Stack Exchange post: Does Duplicity modify atime when backing up?
I was trying to post an answer to the abovementioned question. When posting my answer I got an error page instead, and now I cannot even visit that question, instead I'm redirected to an error page.
The answer I was trying to post follows after the <HR>
No, it's incorrect to say that a software application modifies the atime
of a file. User-mode programs have almost no way to control whether the atime
is updated. That is the responsibility of the operating system, or more specifically, the filesystem driver. Furthermore, the current default mount options on Linux will minimize timestamp updates so that they will have little impact on performance or longevity your ssd.
The current situation on modern linux distributions is as follows:
- Using the mount option
noatime
completely eliminatesatime
updates at the expense whatever utility is provided by maintainingatime
metadata. - The default
relatime
option minimizes the issue - A recently-introduced option,
lazytime
should completely eliminate any remaining impact on SSD longevity from timestamp updates.