[PATCH 02/18] xstat: Add a pair of system calls to make extended file stats available [ver #6]

[Greg Freemyer]

> Furthermore, I'll go ahead and propose the following (simple) semantics:
>
> 1) birthtime is initialized to the current time when a new inode is
> created
>
> 2) it's settable via the xattr to an arbitrary value
>
> Either way, the xattr for this ought to be named the same on all
> filesystems. Samba shouldn't need to know or care what the underlying
> filesystem is, as long as it presents the correct xattr.
>
> That should make samba happy, and be reasonably simple to implement.

Is there any reason to allow birthtime to be set in advance of the
current birthtime?

ie restore / copy tools clearly need to backdate it, but I'd prefer to
see it not advance-able.

Greg