[NTLUG:Discuss] True order of files in a directory.

[Richard Geoffrion]

Steve Baker wrote:
 >>>

>
>
>> If the order is based on the creation time, couldn't you just modify the
>> ctime to change the order? 
>
>
> No - it's literally the order the files were created.  The first file to
> come along grabs the first directory 'slot', the second one grabs the 
> second.
> Subsequently changing the creation time doesn't affect which file got 
> which
> slot.


Ok..then why doesn't this exercise work to put the files in order.

------------
#Make a brand new directory
mkdir /home/sorted

#change to the location of some unsorted files located on a different 
file system
cd /usr/local/bin

#list the files in the source directory in alphabetical order and do a
# copy on each one of them in order (don't list the files in subdirs)
for i in `ls -d *` ; do cp $i /home/sorted/ ; done

#examine the results and note they are not in alphabetical order.
ls -fla /home/sorted
------------

Other tests that didn't work:

for i in * ; do cp $i  /home/sorted ; done
----
mkdir /usr/local/sorted #on the same filesystem
for i in * ; do cp $i  ../sorted ; done

----
#Try to MOVE them this time.
for i in * ; do mv $i  ../sorted ; done

==================
 From what I can see, bash/reiserfs is doing something ELSE when it 
stores these files.


For grins I did the following.

mkdir /tmp/sorttest
cd /tmp/sorttest
touch 5
touch 2
touch 1
touch 4
touch 3
#and when I did..
ls -fla
#they were all in ..well...numerical order.


...Conclusion... Neither file creation NOR file placement into a 
directory has one iota of influence on the 'raw' nature of the directory 
sort.

So, if the 'true' order of the files from Linux using 'ls -f' (which 
turns off sorting)
and when I do that, Linux sees the same random ordering

So.....how DOES one accomplish copying files in alphabetical order do a 
removable media storage device?   Does it require a file system tool?  
maybe something that would sound like it would have the name -- 
reiserfssort/ext2sort/ext3sort?  I wonder if any of my  above examples 
would work on a fat/fat32 filesystem...hm.. I should find some space and 
test.


-- 
Richard