Linux display the date when a file was accessed with stat command

by nixCraft on August 6, 2007 · 17 comments· Last updated August 13, 2007

A quick question from my mail bag:

How do I display or get the date when a file was last time accessed?

The best and simplest way is to use stat command. It displays file or file system status such as:

=> File size

=> File type

=> Inode number

=> UID/GID

=> File access , modify and creation time etc.

stat command example

$ stat /etc/passwd
Output

  File: `/etc/passwd'
  Size: 2453            Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 806h/2054d      Inode: 25298826    Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2007-08-06 04:45:18.000000000 -0500
Modify: 2007-07-17 16:25:12.000000000 -0500
Change: 2007-07-17 16:25:12.000000000 -0500

Display file system status

You can display file system status instead of file status. For example, display status for / file system:
$ stat -f /
Output:

  File: "/"
    ID: 0        Namelen: 255     Type: ext2/ext3
Block size: 4096       Fundamental block size: 4096
Blocks: Total: 32161831   Free: 30458361   Available: 28798245
Inodes: Total: 33226752   Free: 33135357

stat command and shell scripts

You can use stat in a shell script. It supports -c option. By default it shows all information about file. Use -c option to specify FORMAT instead of the default. For example store access time in a shell variable:

ATIME=$(stat -c "%x" /etc/passwd)
echo $ATIME

See the stat command man page for full details for the valid format sequences for files:
man stat

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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

1 frank August 13, 2007 at 1:43 am

stat command example

$ ls /etc/passwd

this could be “$ stat /etc/passwd” ?

2 vivek August 13, 2007 at 4:33 am

Thanks for the heads up! The post has been updated.

3 pradeep August 13, 2007 at 6:58 am

Dear Sir,
I want know the time of command when command run my any user or root on linux system

Thanks
pradeep

4 Gonçalo August 13, 2007 at 9:53 am

”
=> File size

=> File type

=> Inode number

=> UID/GID

=> File access , modify (change) and creation time etc.
”

I though that stat command never show creation time. Only access, modify and change. Am I wrong?

5 vivek August 13, 2007 at 10:07 am

No, you are not. UNIX and Linux never stores creation time. It was a typo.

Appreciate your post!

6 RajaniKanth September 6, 2007 at 6:47 pm

Hi,

I just want to find the list of users who are currently accessing/accessed a purticular file from linux server?

Thanks
RK

7 Nidhin Tomson August 30, 2011 at 6:02 am: fuser -muv will give you the details who / what process is holding a file. though it will not show file accessed details.
Reply

8 ur2g2b4got October 24, 2007 at 5:20 pm

is there a way to modify the property of the last time a file was accessed?

9 vivek October 24, 2007 at 6:10 pm

ur2g2b4got,

use touch command to update date/time stamp.

10 Mohit June 19, 2009 at 4:02 pm

Is there any command on Linux that tells when the file or folder was created ?

11 Vivek Gite June 19, 2009 at 4:25 pm: No UNIX / Linux file system do not store creation date.
Reply

12 rajbhatia January 22, 2010 at 5:40 pm

No UNIX / Linux file system do not store creation date while windows do.
why?
if anybody knws plzz reply me on my email.

13 Alex September 8, 2010 at 6:06 pm

Thanks for the tip! Very useful

14 sonal January 21, 2011 at 9:09 am

how can i get the names of all the recently modified files in any directory?

15 Truong October 8, 2012 at 3:10 pm

Hi,

On Linux, I want to output a summary list with these info on file datasets:

Filename Size (in Bytes) Last Active Dates

If I use “psz *.js” I will get:
—Bytes—- —Mbytes— –Gbytes– Filename
4096 0.00391 0.00000381 conv_10ktmigstack.js
28672 0.02734 0.00002670 convdenoiseddatastk.js
4096 0.00391 0.00000381 convdenoiseddataxy10ofb.js
4096 0.00391 0.00000381 convdesigdenoiseddataxy10.js
28672 0.02734 0.00002670 convdesigdenoisedstk.js

If I use “stat *.js” I will get:
[buitv@hololw54 conventional_t]> stat *.js
File: `conv_10ktmigstack.js’
Size: 4096 Blocks: 128 IO Block: 4096 directory
Device: 32h/50d Inode: 3154237336 Links: 2
Access: (0775/drwxrwxr-x) Uid: (115419/ buitv) Gid: ( 62/landmark)
Access: 2012-10-08 09:31:35.847520000 -0500
Modify: 2011-02-01 09:57:53.905232000 -0600
Change: 2011-11-10 15:13:49.274708746 -0600

How do I do this to combine the info (Filename, Size & Last Active Date) in 3 columns in one run?

Thanks,

16 Vivek Gite October 8, 2012 at 5:52 pm