File modification time (seconds) on Unix - unix

Question

On Unix, is there a command to display a file's modification time, precise to the second?
On Linux this is easily done with a "stat -c %y", which returns something like 2009-11-27 11:36:06.000000000 +0100. I found no equivalent on Unix.

Answer 1

I found this:
ls --time-style='+%d-%m-%Y %H:%M:%S' -l
Which exports something like this:
root:~# ls --time-style='+%d-%m-%Y %H:%M:%S' -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 16-04-2015 23:14:02 other-file.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 16-04-2015 23:13:58 test.txt

Answer 2

According to the man page on my Mac (which has the BSD standard version of stat) you can get the epoch time version of the modification in seconds with:
stat -f %m /etc/passwd
Or if you want to print that out in hours:mins:secs you can do this:
perl -e "print scalar(localtime(`stat -f %m /etc/passwd`))"

Answer 3

The following gives you last modified time in seconds since Epoch:
stat -c%Y <file>

Answer 4

The find command is a good source for all kinds of file information, including modification time to the second:
find /etc/passwd -maxdepth 0 -printf "%TY/%Tm/%Td %TH:%TM:%.2TS\n"
2011/11/21 13:41:36
The first argument can be a file. The maxdepth prevents searching if a directory name is given. The %T instructs it to print last modification time.
Some systems interpret %TS as a floating point seconds (e.g. 36.8342610). If you want fractional seconds use "%TS" instead of "%.2TS", but you may not see fractional seconds on every system.

Answer 5

For anyone facing the same issue, I found no solution (on HP-UX 11i anyway).
Ended up coding a personalized "ls -lh" for my needs. It's not that hard..
Prints something like :
- 664 rw-/rw-/r-- 1L expertNoob adm 8.37 kB 2010.08.24 12:11:15 findf1.c
d 775 rwx/rwx/r-x 2L expertNoob adm 96 B 2010.08.24 15:17:37 tmp/
- 775 rwx/rwx/r-x 1L expertNoob adm 16 kB 2010.08.24 12:35:30 findf1
- 775 rwx/rwx/r-x 1L expertNoob adm 24 kB 2010.09.14 19:45:20 dir_info
- 444 r--/r--/r-- 1L expertNoob adm 9.01 kB 2010.09.01 11:23:41 getopt.c
- 664 rw-/rw-/r-- 1L expertNoob adm 6.86 kB 2010.09.01 11:24:47 getopt.o
- 664 rw-/rw-/r-- 1L expertNoob adm 6.93 kB 2010.09.14 19:37:44 findf1.o
l 775 rwx/rwx/r-x 1L expertNoob adm 6 B 2010.10.06 17:09:01 test1 -> test.c
- 664 rw-/rw-/r-- 1L expertNoob adm 534 B 2009.03.26 15:34:23 > test.c
d 755 rwx/r-x/r-x 25L expertNoob adm 8 kB 2009.05.20 15:36:23 zip30/
Here it is :
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/errno.h>
#include <dirent.h>
#include <pwd.h>
#include <grp.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <locale.h>
#include <langinfo.h>
#include <stdio.h>
//#include <stdint.h>
#include <limits.h> // PATH_MAX
#include <stdarg.h>
#include "getopt.h"
static short START_VSNBUFF=16;
// This is bformat from Better String library (bstrlib), customized
int strformat (char ** str, const char * fmt, ...) {
va_list arglist;
char * buff;
int n, r;
/* Since the length is not determinable beforehand, a search is
performed using the truncating "vsnprintf" call (to avoid buffer
overflows) on increasing potential sizes for the output result. */
if ((n = (int) (2*strlen (fmt))) < START_VSNBUFF) n = START_VSNBUFF;
if ( NULL == ( buff = (char *) malloc((n + 2)*sizeof(char)) ) ) {
n = 1;
if ( NULL == ( buff = (char *) malloc((n + 2)*sizeof(char)) ) ) {
fprintf( stderr, "strformat: not enough memory to format string\n" );
return -1;
}
}
for (;;) {
va_start (arglist, fmt);
r = vsnprintf (buff, n + 1, fmt, arglist); // n+1 chars: buff[0]..buff[n], n chars from arglist: buff[n]='\0'
va_end (arglist);
buff[n] = (unsigned char) '\0'; // doesn't hurt, especially strlen!
if ( strlen(buff) < n ) break;
if (r > n) n = r; else n += n;
if ( NULL == ( buff = (char *) realloc( buff, (n + 2)*sizeof(char) ) ) ) {
free(buff);
fprintf( stderr, "strformat: not enough memory to format string\n" );
return -1;
}
}
if( NULL != *str ) free(*str);
*str = buff;
return 0;
}
int printFSObjectInfo( const char * path, const char * name ) {
struct stat statbuf;
struct passwd *pwd;
struct group *grp;
struct tm *tm;
char datestring[256];
char *type = "? ";
char *fbuf = NULL;
double size = 0;
const char *units[] = {"B ", "kB", "MB", "GB", "TB", "PB", "EB", "ZB", "YB"};
int i = 0;
char owner[] = "---", group[] = "---", others[] = "---";
/* Get entry's information. */
if ( -1 == lstat( path, &statbuf ) ) {
fprintf( stderr, "printFSObjectInfo: error: can't stat %s\n", path );
if( 0 == strformat( &fbuf, "lstat() said: %s", path ) ) { perror(fbuf); return -1; }
}
// File type
if( S_ISREG(statbuf.st_mode) ) type = "-"; // regular file
if( S_ISDIR(statbuf.st_mode) ) { // directory
type="d";
if( S_ISCDF(statbuf.st_mode) ) type = "hd"; // hidden dir
}
if( S_ISBLK(statbuf.st_mode) ) type = "b"; // block special
if( S_ISCHR(statbuf.st_mode) ) type = "c"; // character special
if( S_ISFIFO(statbuf.st_mode) ) type = "f"; // pipe or FIFO
if( S_ISLNK(statbuf.st_mode) ) type = "l"; // symbolic link
if( S_ISSOCK(statbuf.st_mode) ) type = "s"; // socket
if( S_ISNWK(statbuf.st_mode) ) type = "n"; // network special
printf( "%2s ", type );
/* Print out type, permissions, and number of links. */
//printf("%10.10s", sperm (statbuf.st_mode));
if( S_IRUSR & statbuf.st_mode ) owner[0] = 'r';
if( S_IWUSR & statbuf.st_mode ) owner[1] = 'w';
if( S_IXUSR & statbuf.st_mode ) owner[2] = 'x';
if( S_IRGRP & statbuf.st_mode ) group[0] = 'r';
if( S_IWGRP & statbuf.st_mode ) group[1] = 'w';
if( S_IXGRP & statbuf.st_mode ) group[2] = 'x';
if( S_IROTH & statbuf.st_mode ) others[0] = 'r';
if( S_IWOTH & statbuf.st_mode ) others[1] = 'w';
if( S_IXOTH & statbuf.st_mode ) others[2] = 'x';
//printf( "\n%o\n", statbuf.st_mode );
printf( "%3o %s/%s/%s ", 0777 & statbuf.st_mode, owner, group, others );
printf("%4dL", statbuf.st_nlink);
/* Print out owner's name if it is found using getpwuid(). */
if ((pwd = getpwuid(statbuf.st_uid)) != NULL)
printf(" %-8.8s", pwd->pw_name);
else
printf(" %-8d", statbuf.st_uid);
/* Print out group name if it is found using getgrgid(). */
if ((grp = getgrgid(statbuf.st_gid)) != NULL)
printf(" %-8.8s", grp->gr_name);
else
printf(" %-8d", statbuf.st_gid);
/* Print size of file. */
//printf(" %9d", (int)statbuf.st_size);
i = 0;
size = (double) statbuf.st_size;
while (size >= 1024) {
size /= 1024;
i++;
}
if( 0 == (double)(size - (long) size) )
printf( "%7d %-2s", (long)size, units[i] );
else printf( "%7.2f %-2s", size, units[i] );
tm = localtime(&statbuf.st_mtime);
/* Get localized date string. */
strftime(datestring, sizeof(datestring), "%Y.%m.%d %T", tm); // nl_langinfo(D_T_FMT)
if ( 0 == strcmp(name, "\n") )
printf(" %s > %s", datestring, path);
else {
if( 0 == strcmp(type, "d") ) printf(" %s %s/", datestring, name);
else printf(" %s %s", datestring, name);
}
if( 0 == strcmp(type, "l") ) {
char buf[1+PATH_MAX];
if( -1 == readlink( path, buf, (1+PATH_MAX) ) ) {
fprintf( stderr, "printFSObjectInfo: error: can't read symbolic link %s\n", path);
if( 0 == strformat( &fbuf, "readlink() said: %s:", path ) ) { perror(fbuf); return -2; }
}
else {
lstat( buf, &statbuf ); // want errno, a symlink may point to non-existing object
if(errno == ENOENT) printf(" -> %s [!no such file!]\n", buf );
else {
printf(" -> %s\n", buf );
if ( 0 != strcmp(name, "\n") ) printFSObjectInfo( buf, "\n" );
}
}
}
else printf("\n");
return 0;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
struct dirent *dp;
struct stat statbuf;
char *path = NULL; //[1+PATH_MAX];
char *fbuf = NULL;
char *pathArg = NULL;
if( argc == 1 || 0 == strlen(argv[1]) ) pathArg = ".";
else pathArg = argv[1];
if ( lstat( pathArg, &statbuf ) == -1 ) {
printf("%s: error: can't stat %s\n", argv[0], pathArg);
if( 0 == strformat( &fbuf, "stat() said: %s", pathArg ) ) perror(fbuf);
exit(2);
}
if( S_ISDIR(statbuf.st_mode) ) {
DIR *dir = opendir( pathArg );
if( NULL == dir ) {
fprintf( stderr, "%s: error: can't open %s\n", argv[0], pathArg );
if( 0 != strformat( &fbuf, "opendir() said: %s", pathArg ) ) exit(5);
perror(fbuf);
exit(4);
}
/* Loop through directory entries. */
while ( (dp = readdir(dir)) != NULL ) {
if( 0!= strformat( &path, "%s/%s", pathArg, dp->d_name ) ) continue;
printFSObjectInfo( path, dp->d_name );
}
closedir(dir);
} else printFSObjectInfo( pathArg, pathArg );
return 0;
}
In printFSObjectInfo() you have full functionality of lstat() system call, you can customize this to your wishes.
Be well.

Answer 6

Try a perl one-liner:
perl -e '#d=localtime ((stat(shift))[9]); printf "%02d-%02d-%04d %02d:%02d:%02d\n", $d[3],$d[4]+1,$d[5]+1900,$d[2],$d[1],$d[0]' your_file_to_show_the_date_for.your_extension

Answer 7

ls -le works if you need only HH:MM:SS

Answer 8

On Mac OS X (tested on 10.10.5 Yosemite thru 10.12.4 Sierra):
prompt> ls -lT
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 youruser staff 0 Sep 24 10:28:30 2015 my_file_1.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 youruser staff 0 Sep 24 10:28:35 2015 my_file_2.txt

Answer 9

If you are using HP-UX:
Ok let's say that the name of the file is "junk". On HP-UX you can do:
perl -e '#d=localtime ((stat(shift))[9]); printf "%4d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d\n", $d[5]+1900,$d[4]+1,$d[3],$d[2],$d[1],$d[0]' junk
And yes, perl comes with HP-UX. It is in /usr/contrib. But you may have a more recent version in /usr/local or /opt.
Source: Perderabo

Answer 10

Today I encountered the same issue on an old version of HP-UX. The stat program was not part of the installation. (just the C version)
The quickest solution for me was to use a tool such as Tectia file transfer running on my laptop, without actually doing any copying, It converts the time of last modification for you from HP-UX and provides dates and times for all files once you have logged into UNIX.
Possibly this works with other similar graphic based file transfer tools, but I have not tried yet.

Answer 11

On AIX the istat command does this:
machine:~/support> istat ../core
Inode 30034 on device 32/3 File
Protection: rw-rw-r--
Owner: 500(group) Group: 500(user)
Link count: 1 Length 10787748 bytes
Last updated: Wed Feb 22 13:54:28 2012
Last modified: Wed Feb 22 13:54:28 2012
Last accessed: Wed Feb 22 19:58:10 2012

Answer 12

Seconds:
date +%s -r /etc/passwd
Or, with more precision (up to nanosecond precision), if your filesystem supports it:
date +%s.%N -r /etc/passwd