current_time(9)

💖 current_time(9) 💖

okay so bestie, we're in the Kernel API Manual for current_time(9), and it's literally all about returning FS time (possibly fine-grained). no cap, let's go 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

current_time — Return FS time (possibly fine-grained)

🛠️ SYNOPSIS 🛠️

struct timespec64 current_time (struct inode *inode );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• inode — inode. that's the whole argument, bestie 💅

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

okay so here's the tea: current_time returns the current time truncated to the time granularity supported by the fs, as suitable for a ctime/mtime change. ✨

If the ctime is flagged as having been QUERIED, it gets a fine-grained timestamp, but it does not update the floor. no cap 👑

For a multigrain inode, this is effectively an estimate of the timestamp that a file would receive. An actual update must go through inode_set_ctime_current. periodt. 💖

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

the page is literally giving you the whole inode friend group, so here's every single shout-out — no skips, bestie:

• Kernel file ./fs/inode.c
• inode_init_always_gfp(9)
• alloc_inode(9)
• drop_nlink(9)
• clear_nlink(9)
• set_nlink(9)
• inc_nlink(9)
• inode_sb_list_add(9)
• __insert_inode_hash(9)
• __remove_inode_hash(9)
• evict_inodes(9)
• new_inode(9)
• unlock_new_inode(9)
• lock_two_nondirectories(9)
• unlock_two_nondirectories(9)
• inode_insert5(9)
• iget5_locked(9)
• iget5_locked_rcu(9)
• iget_locked(9)
• iunique(9)
• ihold(9)
• ilookup5_nowait(9)
• ilookup5(9)
• ilookup(9)
• find_inode_nowait(9)
• find_inode_rcu(9)
• find_inode_by_ino_rcu(9)
• iput(9)
• iput_not_last(9)
• bmap(9)
• inode_update_time(9)
• generic_update_time(9)
• atime_needs_update(9)
• file_remove_privs(9)
• file_update_time(9)
• file_modified_flags(9)
• file_modified(9)
• kiocb_modified(9)
• inode_init_owner(9)
• inode_owner_or_capable(9)
• inode_dio_wait(9)
• timestamp_truncate(9)
• inode_set_ctime_current(9)
• inode_set_ctime_deleg(9)
• in_group_or_capable(9)
• mode_strip_sgid(9)
• dump_inode(9)

that's the whole vibe — source/version: ./fs; date: October 2026; page: current_time(9). mwah 💋🫶