"Linux has a special mount option for file systems
called noatime. If this option is set for a file system in
/etc/fstab, then reading accesses will no longer cause the atime
information (last access time - don't mix this up with the last
modified time - if a file is changed, the modification date will
still be set) that is associated with a file to be updated (in
reverse this means that if noatime is not set, each read access
will also result in a write operation)."