From: "Peña, Botp" <botp@...>
Date: 2007-08-22T13:03:17+09:00
Subject: Re: Get Date Modified value for a directory (folder)

[mailto:list-bounce@example.com] On Behalf Of Nagesh Sanana:
# whats the dot symobl indicates.

the dot represents the current/working directory/path http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_(computing)

some simple examples, 

irb(main):192:0> puts `ls -la .`.grep(/\.$/)
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root   4096 Aug  7 10:30 .
drwxr-xr-x 30 root root   4096 Jul  9 09:47 ..
=> nil
irb(main):193:0> puts `pwd`
/root
=> nil
irb(main):194:0> `ls -la .` == `ls -la  /root`
=> true
irb(main):195:0> `ls -la .` == `ls -la  /etc`
=> false

and directories are just files (albeit special), so

irb(main):199:0> File.mtime "."
=> Tue Aug 07 10:30:53 +0800 2007
irb(main):200:0> File.mtime ".."
=> Mon Jul 09 09:47:20 +0800 2007
irb(main):201:0> File.mtime "/root"
=> Tue Aug 07 10:30:53 +0800 2007

irb(main):207:0> File.stat(".") == File.stat("/root")
=> true
irb(main):208:0> File.stat(".") == File.stat("..")
=> false
irb(main):209:0> File.stat("/root") == File.stat("..")
=> false
irb(main):210:0> File.stat("/") == File.stat("..")
=> true

kind regards -botp