changes in catalog.xml

Hum, this would require quite some big changes in the code, a quick guess would be that you have to modify a dozen files to have this information, and it would be inaccurate anyways. Two users can modify the geoserver config at the same time, and we could only register the username of the one that has pressed the apply or save button. Moreover, there is no way to tell which info has been modified unless you add a marker in each configuration class, meaning that the files in need to be modified probably become 30 or so.

If you're interested in doing this change, join us on IRC (#geoserver at irc.freenode.net)

I see, a transactional problem...
Anyway just adding the timestamp information should be a nice feature

Well, the timestamp would be the same for all the layers. You can use the file last modification date in that case.

Of course , but the suggestion was to have a timestamp on each layer and ignore the user....

That would be the same as above. The configuration is kept in memory until you save, when you do, it's written as a monolith. You would have to add time information on each configuration object. Again, it's a 30 files change more or less.

Ok,

catalog.xml is gone and this is not a configuration concern. It could be interesting as an extension to the monitoring module though

Bulk closing all resolved issue that have not gotten any more feedback or comment in the last month