Re: apache and file's access time

[Matthew Dillon <dillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

:Hello!
:
:I have a strange problem. When a file is served out by Apache server, the
:file's atime is not updated. I checked -- there is no "noatime" flag in the
:mount.
:
:If I read the file, with something like `file name' the atime gets updated.
:But when Apache sends it out, it is not... There are not proxies in between
:us either.
:
:Any ideas? Thanks!
:
: -mi

    Apache is mmap()ing the file and, most likely, the file is completely
    cached in VM.  There's probably no operation there at all which 
    triggeres the atime update.

    I'm not sure whether this is allowed by the standard or not.  We probably
    have to at least bump the atime on file close, but there is no easy way
    to track the fact that the file was actually accessed via the mmap()
    since its pages might be pre-faulted, short of scanning the 'A'ccessed
    bit in the page table entries.  Though we could fake it and just assume
    access if mmap() is called on the file.

					-Matt
					Matthew Dillon 
					<dillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>