[Pkg-octave-devel] Bug#550823: Updating load-path cache based on modification times probably a bad idea (was: Race condition between Octave 3.2.3 and unlink())

[Judd Storrs <storrsjm@email.uc.edu>]

I'm still looking to see if there's a generic way to determine the file-system time resolution. I have seen stated multiple places that FAT/FAT32 is limited to a time resolution of 2 seconds. For example http://docs.python.org/library/os.html#os.stat says:

Note

The exact meaning and resolution of the st_atime, st_mtime, and st_ctime members depends on the operating system and the file system. For example, on Windows systems using the FAT or FAT32 file systems, st_mtime has 2-second resolution, and st_atime has only 1-day resolution. See your operating system documentation for details.

I'm not sure about the "on Windows" part--whether they mean that for example linux provides 1sec emulation for FAT drives? I haven't found any support for that yet. Because removable media often uses FAT, perhaps the default should be 2 sec?

--judd