mctime_update_needed(9)

✨ mctime_update_needed(9) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — we're doing a little function called mctime_update_needed today and honestly it's giving tiny-but-iconic 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

mctime_update_needed — check if mtime or ctime update is needed.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int mctime_update_needed (const struct inode *inode , const struct
       timespec64 *now );

like, that's the whole signature, no cap 🫶

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• inode — the inode we're doing the check for 👀 that's the one we're side-eyeing to see if it needs a little time-stamp glow-up
• now — current time ⏰ literally just what time it is right now

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so this helper function checks if the inode mtime/ctime should be updated or not — girl, it's just a vibe check on your timestamps ✨

If current values of the time-stamps are within the UBIFS inode time granularity, they are not updated. Which, lowkey, is the whole point: this is an optimization. 🧚 We're being efficient, we're being cute, we're not rewriting timestamps for no reason.

bestie note: it's granularity-dependent, so if the clock hasn't moved enough to matter, we just… don't. slay 💀

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🌈 RETURN 🌈

• 1 — time update is needed ✅
• 0 — time update is not needed ❌

fr fr, that's it. binary queen 👑

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

squad goals, all in Kernel file ./fs/ubifs/file.c:

release_new_page_budget(9), release_existing_page_budget(9), allocate_budget(9), cancel_budget(9), populate_page(9), ubifs_do_bulk_read(9), ubifs_bulk_read(9), do_attr_changes(9), do_truncation(9), do_setattr(9), update_mctime(9)

go read them all, iykyk 📚💜

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🫶 mwah, that's the page! brought to you from the ./fs/ubifs corner of the internet, dated October 2026, and it's titled mctime_update_needed(9) in case you forgot already 💖🎀✨