socket file descriptor a/m/c-timestamps broken in <= 3.8.8?

[Felix Becker <mail@felixbecker.name>]

Hi,

I tried to figure out how old my TCP connections are and took a look
at /proc/<pid>/fd/<socketfdnum> using 'ls -la' / 'stat'.

When I'm creating a new socket in my application, the time stamps
returned by stat / ls -la are correct - as expected. After closing the
socket, the fd isn't visible in /proc/<pid>/fd anymore - as expected.
When creating a new socket a few minutes later (which gets the same
number as the socket closed before), the newly created socket has the
same time stamps (access / modify / change) as the old socket - I
didn't expect this.

When using fstat() from <sys/stat.h> I'm getting 0 for a/m/c-time.
Only in /proc/<pid>/fd/ i can see (the wrong) times.

I attached a test code for reproducing the issue. In my production
environments i have new socket file descriptors which have timestamps
indicating that they are many hours old.

Q1: is it a bug that fstat() returns 0-values for a/m/c-time?

Q2: is it a bug that a new socket, with the file descriptor number of
an older socket which existed before, have the a/m/c-times of the old
socket in /proc/<pid>/fd/?

Best regards

Felix

p.s. test setup is a normal x86_64 architecture (intel xeon).

=======================================================================
// sockettest.c

#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/un.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>


void print_socket_stats(int sfd){
   struct stat socket_stats;
   fstat(sfd, &socket_stats);
   printf("Socket stats for socket %d\n", sfd);
   printf("socket stat: st_atime: %ld\n", socket_stats.st_atime);
   printf("socket stat: st_mtime: %ld\n", socket_stats.st_mtime);
   printf("socket stat: st_ctime: %ld\n", socket_stats.st_ctime);
}

void print_with_time(const char* message){
        time_t t;
        time(&t);
        printf("%s @ %s\n", message, ctime(&t));

}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {

   int sfd;

   printf("pid: %d\n", getpid());

   print_with_time("Opening socket");
   sfd = socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
   printf("opened socket: %d\n",sfd);
   print_socket_stats(sfd);

   print_with_time("sleeping 30\n");

   sleep(30);

   printf("closing socket %d", sfd);
   close(sfd);

   printf("closed socket: %d\n",sfd);
   print_with_time("sleeping 61 seconds");

   sleep(61);

   print_with_time("opening new socket");
   sfd = socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
   printf("opened socket: %d\n",sfd);
   print_socket_stats(sfd);
   print_with_time("sleeping 999");

   sleep(999);
}

=======================================================================

./sockettest &

pid: 18267
Opening socket @ Mon Apr 22 23:05:37 2013

opened socket: 3
Socket stats for socket 3
socket stat: st_atime: 0
socket stat: st_mtime: 0
socket stat: st_ctime: 0
sleeping 30 @ Mon Apr 22 23:05:37 2013

>>> ls -la /proc/18267/fd/3
lrwx------ 1 becker becker 64 Apr 22 23:05 /proc/18267/fd/3 ->
socket:[210268]


>>> stat /proc/18267/fd/3
  File: `/proc/18267/fd/3' -> `socket:[210268]'
  Size: 64              Blocks: 0          IO Block: 1024   symbolic link
Device: 3h/3d   Inode: 52177       Links: 1
Access: (0700/lrwx------)  Uid: ( 1001/  becker)   Gid: ( 1001/  becker)
Access: 2013-04-22 23:05:46.179813835 +0000
Modify: 2013-04-22 23:05:46.175813886 +0000
Change: 2013-04-22 23:05:46.175813886 +0000

closing socket 3
closed socket: 3

sleeping 61 seconds @ Mon Apr 22 23:06:07 2013

opening new socket @ Mon Apr 22 23:07:08 2013

opened socket: 3
Socket stats for socket 3
socket stat: st_atime: 0
socket stat: st_mtime: 0
socket stat: st_ctime: 0
sleeping 999 @ Mon Apr 22 23:07:08 2013


>>> ls -la /proc/18267/fd/3
lrwx------ 1 becker becker 64 Apr 22 23:05 /proc/18267/fd/3 ->
socket:[210320]

>>> stat /proc/18267/fd/3



  File: `/proc/18267/fd/3' -> `socket:[210320]'
  Size: 64              Blocks: 0          IO Block: 1024   symbolic link
Device: 3h/3d   Inode: 52177       Links: 1
Access: (0700/lrwx------)  Uid: ( 1001/  becker)   Gid: ( 1001/  becker)
Access: 2013-04-22 23:05:46.179813835 +0000
Modify: 2013-04-22 23:05:46.175813886 +0000
Change: 2013-04-22 23:05:46.175813886 +0000