Device File Creation Time

[Bruno Lauzé]

root at pcbsd:/dev # stat /dev/ada0
1895890688 97 crw-rw-rw- 1 root operator 97 0 "Feb 18 10:52:11 2014" "Feb 17 09:36:43 2014" "Feb 17 09:36:43 2014" "Dec 31 17:59:59 1969" 4096 0 0 /dev/ada0

root at pcbsd:/dev # stat /dev/ada0p2
1895890688 103 crw-rw-rw- 1 root operator 103 0 "Feb 18 10:52:05 2014" "Feb 17 09:36:43 2014" "Feb 17 09:36:43 2014" "Dec 31 17:59:59 1969" 4096 0 0 /dev/ada0p2

root at pcbsd:/dev # stat /dev/ada0p3
1895890688 105 crw-rw-rw- 1 root operator 105 0 "Feb 18 10:52:21 2014" "Feb 17 09:36:43 2014" "Feb 17 09:36:43 2014" "Dec 31 17:59:59 1969" 4096 0 0 /dev/ada0p3

As we can see all files in devfs reports Dec 31 1969 as creation time.

Can we look to manage this value to know when a certain device was installed?

It would be really great to know when a disk was replaced.

Would there be any other mechanism to accomplish this?