In Linux, most people use the ls command to check a file's creation, access, and modification times, ownership, and permissions.
What if I told you there is another great way to display detailed information about files and file systems?
Open this thread to learn more about it:
What if I told you there is another great way to display detailed information about files and file systems?
Open this thread to learn more about it:
The Linux ls command typically displays basic or chunk of information about a file; however, what if you want to print more information about the file? This is where the stat command comes in.
stat (short for status) is a command-line utility for displaying detailed information about specific files or file systems. It is commonly used to obtain file timestamps.
How to use the stat command:
The stat command has a simple syntax which is similar to that of the ls command:
$ stat [OPTION]... [FILE]...
The stat command takes one or more FILE names as input and has a number of options that control the command's behavior and output.
The stat command has a simple syntax which is similar to that of the ls command:
$ stat [OPTION]... [FILE]...
The stat command takes one or more FILE names as input and has a number of options that control the command's behavior and output.
With the stat syntax out of the way, let's take a look at our first example to display file status such as size, inode number links, and file timestamps:
$ stat log.txt
The command's output will look like this:
$ stat log.txt
The command's output will look like this:
In this case, we ran the stat command with no options other than the file name, and it returned the following file information:
โข File โ The name of the file.
โข Size โ The size of the file in bytes.
โข Blocks โ The number of allocated blocks the file takes.
โข File โ The name of the file.
โข Size โ The size of the file in bytes.
โข Blocks โ The number of allocated blocks the file takes.
โข IO Block โ The size in bytes of every block.
โข File type โ (ex. regular file, directory, symbolic link, block file, sockets.)
โข Device โ Device number in hex and decimal.
โข Inode โ Inode number ( uniquely existing number for all the files in Linux).
โข File type โ (ex. regular file, directory, symbolic link, block file, sockets.)
โข Device โ Device number in hex and decimal.
โข Inode โ Inode number ( uniquely existing number for all the files in Linux).
โข Links โ Number of hard links.
โข Access โ File permissions in both numeric and symbolic modes.
โข Uid โ User ID and name of the owner .
โข Gid โ Group ID and name of the owner.
โข Context โ The SELinux security context.
โข Access โ The last time the file was accessed.
โข Access โ File permissions in both numeric and symbolic modes.
โข Uid โ User ID and name of the owner .
โข Gid โ Group ID and name of the owner.
โข Context โ The SELinux security context.
โข Access โ The last time the file was accessed.
โข Modify โ The last time the fileโs content was modified.
โข Change โ The last time the fileโs attribute or content was changed.
โข Birth โ File creation time (some Linux distros may not support this, so you will probably see it blank).
โข Change โ The last time the fileโs attribute or content was changed.
โข Birth โ File creation time (some Linux distros may not support this, so you will probably see it blank).
Displaying filesystem status:
Instead of getting information about the file itself, use the -f option or the long format option --file-system to get information about the file system where the given file is located:
$ stat -f logt.txt
The command's output will look like this:
Instead of getting information about the file itself, use the -f option or the long format option --file-system to get information about the file system where the given file is located:
$ stat -f logt.txt
The command's output will look like this:
The stat command only displays less information when the -f option is used. In the preceding example, the following information was displayed:
โข File - The name of the file.
โข ID - File system ID in hexedecimal.
โข Namelen (name legth) - Maximum length of file names.
โข File - The name of the file.
โข ID - File system ID in hexedecimal.
โข Namelen (name legth) - Maximum length of file names.
โข Fundamental block size - The size of each block on the file system.
โข Blocks:
โข Total - Number of total blocks in the file system
.
โข Free - Number of free blocks in the file system.
โข Available - Number of free blocks available to non-root users.
โข Blocks:
โข Total - Number of total blocks in the file system
.
โข Free - Number of free blocks in the file system.
โข Available - Number of free blocks available to non-root users.
โข Inodes:
โข Total - Number of total inodes in the file system.
โข Free - Number of free inodes in the file system.
โข Total - Number of total inodes in the file system.
โข Free - Number of free inodes in the file system.
Follow (dereference) symbolic links:
By default, the stat command does not follow symlinks. When you run it on a symlink, the output includes information about the symlink but not the file to which it points.
$ stat sml-chkf.sh
By default, the stat command does not follow symlinks. When you run it on a symlink, the output includes information about the symlink but not the file to which it points.
$ stat sml-chkf.sh
To follow (dereference) the symlink and display information about the file to which it points, use the -L (short option format) or --dereference (long option format):
$ stat -L sml-chkf.sh
$ stat -L sml-chkf.sh
To learn more about symlinks check out this thread:
Customizing the stat output:
The stat command has two options for customizing the output to your needs: -c short option for (--format="format"), and --printf="format".
The stat command has two options for customizing the output to your needs: -c short option for (--format="format"), and --printf="format".
The difference between these two options is that when two or more files are used as operants, --format adds a newline after the output of each operand. Backslash escapes are interpreted by the --printf option.
With --format and --printf, you can use a variety of format directives for files and file systems.
For example, to view only the file type, you would run:
$ stat --format="%F" log.txt
For example, to view only the file type, you would run:
$ stat --format="%F" log.txt
You can combine any number of formatting directives and use custom separators between them if you want. A single character or a string can be used as the separator:
$ stat --format="%n-%F" logs.txt
Here combined two formating directives an used the hiphen (-) as the separator
$ stat --format="%n-%F" logs.txt
Here combined two formating directives an used the hiphen (-) as the separator
You can use the โprintf option to interpret special characters such as newline or tab as separators:
$ stat --printf='Name: %n\nPermissions: %a\n' logs.txt
\n characters prints a new line.
$ stat --printf='Name: %n\nPermissions: %a\n' logs.txt
\n characters prints a new line.
The stat can also display data in a terse format. This format is useful for other utilities to parse.
To print the output in terse form, run the command with the -t (โterse) option:
$ stat -t logs.txt
To print the output in terse form, run the command with the -t (โterse) option:
$ stat -t logs.txt
Refer to the stat man pages using the (man stat) command for a complete list of all format directives for files and file systems. You can also refer to the stat help by running (stat โhelp) in your terminal.
$ stat --help
$ stat --help
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