No answer here; just definitions. As I have learned and accepted creation date: The time when a file is created in a directory through the provided host API (meaning the time I execute an FOPEN or other file creation statement; not the time the data is posted to disk). modify date: The time when a change to the file's data is done though the provided host API (meaning the time I execute an FWRITE or other data changing statement; not the time the data is posted to disk). Access date: The time when a file's data is read or written (same API note as before). And with that, I guess thats why its not trivial to just change a file's filecode, or other structure defining attributes. These are done with copying it to a newfile, thus giving new dates. Some things have been accepted like name change, limit change, eof change, and with provided special software, filecode change. Now isn't there something called a status change date? Maybe that has something to do with file definition changes. Keven donna garverick wrote: > is there a place in our collection of documentation that annotates just > what actions trigger a change to the modification date for a file? > > we're revisiting some sox auditing things here and on the unix side, > they're reporting (for example) if ownership or rwx for a file changed. > i was suprised to find that on both hp-ux and mpe changing the owner > or access to a file does *not* change the modified date. it appears to > me that *internal* changes to a file will update the modified date but > not external changes....hence my question. - d > * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *