from what i can tell here: https://github.com/c4rlo/attic/commit/f4804c07caac3d145f49fc... ... attic updates the atime when opening files right now... that patche fixes the problem, but i have to wonder how fast it actually and accurate is. bup has all sorts of helpers and tweaks to make it really fast, but also to ensure that it doesn't touch the filesystem while making backups.

i've been amazed to notice how all my files have atimes from july, when i stopped using rsync to make backups and switched to bup. :p