I have a directory containing two files. f1 (<http://alcopop.org/~jon/repro2/src/blog/debgtd.html>) has 

    meta date="2008-07-02 14:13:17"

f2 (<http://alcopop.org/~jon/repro2/src/blog/moving.html>) has

    meta date="2008-07-02 21:04:21"

They have both been modified recently:

    >>> stat(f1)
    (33188, 459250L, 65027L, 1, 1000, 1000, 1686L, 1227967177, 1227966706, 1227966706)
    >>> stat(f2)
    (33188, 458868L, 65027L, 1, 1000, 1000, 938L, 1227967187, 1227966705, 1227966705)

Note that f1 is fractionally newer than f2 in terms of ctime and mtime, but f2 is much newer in terms of the meta information.

Another page includes them both via inline:

    inline pages="blog/*" show=5

The resulting page is rendered with f1 above f2, seemingly not using the meta directive information: <http://alcopop.org/~jon/repro2/dest/blog/>. The footer in the inline pages does use the correct time e.g. <em>Posted Wed 02 Jul 2008 14:13:17 BST</em>.

If I instead include them using creation_year in the pagespec, they are ordered correctly.

<http://alcopop.org/~jon/repro2/> contains the src used to reproduce this, the precise ikiwiki invocation (inside Makefile) and the results (dest).

-- [[users/Jon]]


> On Ikiwiki 2.53.3 (Debian Lenny), my inlines are also sorted using mtime
> by default -- despite what the [[documentation|/ikiwiki/directive/inline]]
> says -- but setting the supposed default sort order manually produces the
> correct results.  For example, the following inline sorts my blog
> entires using their meta date or ctime:
> 
>     inline pages="blog/*" show="10" sort="age"
> 
> I'll try to look at the code this weekend and see if age is really the
> default sort order.
> 
> -- [David A. Harding](http://dtrt.org), 2008-12-20

Here is the code. As you can see, sort="age" is equivilant to leaving
out the sort option. --[[Joey]] 

	if (exists $params{sort} && $params{sort} eq 'title') {
	        @list=sort { pagetitle(basename($a)) cmp pagetitle(basename($b)) } @list;
	}
	elsif (exists $params{sort} && $params{sort} eq 'mtime') {
	        @list=sort { $pagemtime{$b} <=> $pagemtime{$a} } @list;
	}
	elsif (! exists $params{sort} || $params{sort} eq 'age') {
	        @list=sort { $pagectime{$b} <=> $pagectime{$a} } @list;
	}
	else {
	        return sprintf(gettext("unknown sort type %s"), $params{sort});
	}

> On further testing, I find that the bug is limited to the first time
> creation time should be used and has nothing to do with setting the sort
> parameter. Revised steps to reproduce: --[David A.  Harding](http://dtrt.org), 2008-12-20
> 
> 1. Create pages that sort different by mtime and ctime
> 
> 2. inline pages="somepages/*"
> 
> 3. ikiwiki --setup setup_file
> 
> 4. Pages are output incorrectly in mtime order
> 
> 5. ikiwiki --setup setup_file
> 
> 6. Pages are output correctly in ctime order
> 
> 7. Create new page in somepages/, set its ctime to earlier than another
>    page in sompages/
> 
> 8. ikiwiki --setup setup_file
> 
> 9. All previously sorted pages output correctly in ctime order but new
>    page is output incorrectly at the top as if its mtime was its ctime
> 
> 10. ikiwiki --setup setup_file
> 
> 11. All pages, including new page, are output correctly in ctime order

You're confusing ctime and creation time. This is perhaps not suprising, as
ikiwiki uses the term 'ctime' to refer to creation time. However, the unix
ctime value is not the same thing. Unix ctime can change if a file changes
owner, or in some cases, permissions. Unix ctime also always changes
when the file is modified. Ikiwiki wants a first creation date of the file,
and it accomplishes this by recording the initial ctime of a file the first
time it processes it, and *preserving* that creation time forever, ignoring
later ctime changes.

I suspect that this, coupled with the fact that ikiwiki sorts newest pages
first, explains everything you describe. If not, please send me a shell script
test case I can run, as instructions like "Create pages that sort different by
mtime and ctime" are not ones that I know how to follow (given that touch sets
*both*). --[[Joey]] 

> Sorry. I conflated Unix ctime and ikiwiki's creation time because I
> didn't think the difference was important to this case. I'm a writer,
> and I should have known better -- I appologize. Revised steps to
> reproduce are below; feel free to delete this whole misunderstanding
> to make the bug report more concise.
>
> 1. Create pages in the srcdir that should sort in one order by
>    last-modification time and in a diffent order by original creation
>    time.  For example:
> 
>         $ echo -e '\[[!meta date="2007-01-01"]]\nNew.' > test/new.mdwn
>         $ echo -e '\[[!meta date="2006-01-01"]]\nOld.' > test/old.mdwn
> 
> 2. Create a page that includes the files.  For example:
> 
>
>         $ echo '\[[!inline pages="test/*"]]' > sort-test.mdwn
> 
> 3. Run ikiwiki.  For example `ikiwiki --setup setup_file`
> 
> 4. Pages are output incorrectly in modification time order. For example,
>    actual partial HTML of the sort-test/index.html from commands used
>    above (whitespace-only lines removed; one whitespace-only line
>    added):
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/old/">old</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>Old.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Sun 01 Jan 2006 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/new/">new</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>New.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Mon 01 Jan 2007 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
> 5. Run ikiwiki again with the same command line.  For example: `ikiwiki --setup setup_file`
> 
> 6. Pages are output correctly in creation time order. For example,
>    actual partial HTML of the sort-test/index.html from commands used
>    above (whitespace-only lines removed; one whitespace-only line
>    added):
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/new/">new</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>New.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Mon 01 Jan 2007 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/old/">old</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>Old.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Sun 01 Jan 2006 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
> 7. Create a new page with the current Unix mtime and Unix ctime, but a
>    !meta date before the most recent creation date of another page.
>    For example:
> 
>         $ echo -e '\[[!meta date="2005-01-01"]]\nOlder.' > test/older.mdwn
> 
> 8. Run ikiwiki again with the same command line.  For example: `ikiwiki --setup setup_file`
> 
> 9. All previously sorted pages output correctly in order of their
>    creation time, but the new page is output incorrectly at the top as
>    if its modification time was its creation time.  For example,
>    actual partial HTML of the sort-test/index.html from commands used
>    above (whitespace-only lines removed; two whitespace-only
>    lines added):
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/older/">older</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>Older.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Sat 01 Jan 2005 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/new/">new</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>New.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Mon 01 Jan 2007 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/old/">old</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>Old.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Sun 01 Jan 2006 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
> 10. Run ikiwiki again with the same command line.  For example: `ikiwiki --setup setup_file`
> 
> 11. All pages, including new page, are output correctly in creation time
>     order. For example, actual partial HTML of the sort-test/index.html
>     from commands used above (whitespace-only lines removed; two
>     whitespace-only lines added): 
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/new/">new</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>New.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Mon 01 Jan 2007 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/old/">old</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>Old.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Sun 01 Jan 2006 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
>         <div class="inlinepage">
>         <span class="header">
>         <a href="./../test/older/">older</a>
>         </span>
>         <p>Older.</p>
>         <span class="pagedate">
>         Posted Sat 01 Jan 2005 12:00:00 AM EST
>         </span>
>         </div>
> 
> File status after all the above actions:
> 
>         $ stat test/*
>           File: `test/new.mdwn'
>           Size: 33              Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
>         Device: ca20h/51744d    Inode: 684160      Links: 1
>         Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/ harding)   Gid: ( 1000/ harding)
>         Access: 2008-12-20 21:48:32.000000000 -0500
>         Modify: 2008-12-20 21:27:03.000000000 -0500
>         Change: 2008-12-20 21:27:03.000000000 -0500
>           File: `test/older.mdwn'
>           Size: 35              Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
>         Device: ca20h/51744d    Inode: 684407      Links: 1
>         Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/ harding)   Gid: ( 1000/ harding)
>         Access: 2008-12-20 21:48:32.000000000 -0500
>         Modify: 2008-12-20 21:42:10.000000000 -0500
>         Change: 2008-12-20 21:42:10.000000000 -0500
>           File: `test/old.mdwn'
>           Size: 33              Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
>         Device: ca20h/51744d    Inode: 684161      Links: 1
>         Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/ harding)   Gid: ( 1000/ harding)
>         Access: 2008-12-20 21:48:32.000000000 -0500
>         Modify: 2008-12-20 21:27:09.000000000 -0500
>         Change: 2008-12-20 21:27:09.000000000 -0500
> 
> My ikiwiki configuration file (being used to port a blog from pyblosxom
> to ikiwiki):
> 
>         harding@mail:~$ sed 's/#.*//; /^[       ]*$/d' .ikiwiki/gnuisance.setup 
>         use IkiWiki::Setup::Standard {
>               wikiname => "HardingBlog",
>               adminemail => 'dave@dtrt.org',
>               srcdir => "/srv/backup/git/gnuisance.net",
>               destdir => "/srv/test.dtrt.org",
>               url => "http://srv.dtrt.org",
>               wrappers => [
>               ],
>               atom => 1,
>               syslog => 0,
>               prefix_directives => 1,
>               add_plugins => [qw{goodstuff tag}],
>               disable_plugins => [qw{passwordauth}],
>               tagbase => "tag",
>         }
>
> --[David A. Harding](http://dtrt.org/), 2008-12-20

Thank you for a textbook excellent reproduction recipe.

What appears to be going on here is that meta directives are not processed
until the leaf pages are rendered, and thus the ctime setting is not
available at the time that they are inlined, and the newer unix ctime is
used. On the second build, the meta data has already been recorded.

This can probably be avoided by processing meta date at scan time.

Verified, fix works. [[done]]
--[[Joey]]