On Wed, Jul 05, 2023 at 02:58:11PM -0400, Jeff Layton wrote: > + * POSIX mandates that the old and new parent directories have their ctime and > + * mtime updated, and that inodes of @old_dentry and @new_dentry (if any), have > + * their ctime updated. APPLICATION USAGE Some implementations mark for update the last file status change timestamp of renamed files and some do not. Applications which make use of the last file status change timestamp may behave differently with respect to renamed files unless they are designed to allow for either behavior. So for children POSIX permits rather than mandates. Doesn't really matter; Linux behaviour had been to touch ctime on children since way back, if not since the very beginning.