Rocky Hotas <rockyho...@firemail.cc> writes: >> +The >> +.Va arch >> +flag is only used in connection with certain >> +filesystems (e.g., MS-DOS), where it indicates whether >> +a file has been modified since it was last backed up.
I find that very surprising. AIUI, these flags date from 4.4BSD, and there was not a strong culture of interoperating with MS-DOS filesystems. And, people were aware of TOPS-20 and more mainframe type systems, where there was an idea that a file would be migrated to tape but still have an entry in the filesystem. I would suggest reading the 4.4BSD sources, or our own history, to see what the flags did. It is also possible they were defined as a possible future good idea and never really used. > Considering the first lines of the section `Usage' here: > > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive_bit> That's about "CP/M, Microsoft operating systems, OS/2, and AmigaOS" according to the article. I do not expect the authors of the BSD code to have considered themselves to be implementing a compatible feature from CP/M.
