UNIX stat command with examples

The UNIX stat command is a utility which allows us to search a file or directories inode information to retrieve certain attributes about that file or directory. The command comes with an option '-f' or '--format=[value]' where you define format specifiers for viewing inode file properties.

By default when running the stat utility against a file or directory it will output a lot of information about the file.

sam@asus:~/unix% stat file.txt
  File: 'file.txt'
  Size: 17         Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: b301h/45825d Inode: 788042      Links: 1
Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--)  Uid: ( 1000/     sam)   Gid: ( 1000/     sam)
Access: 2019-04-03 15:50:49.286143171 -0600
Modify: 2019-04-03 15:51:07.000699885 -0600
Change: 2019-04-03 15:51:07.000699885 -0600
 Birth: -
sam@asus:~/unix% 

General File Properties

File type

To view a files file type you would use the '%F' format.

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%F file.txt
regular file
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Total Size (bytes)

To view a files size you would use the '%s' format.

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%s file.txt
17
sam@asus:~/unix% 

File name

To view the filename of a file you would use the '%n' format.

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%n file.txt
file.txt
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Inode number

To view a files inode number you would use the '%i" format.

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%i file.txt
788042
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Mount point

To view the mount point of a file you would use the '%m' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%m file.txt
/
sam@asus:~/unix% 

User and Group information

User ID

To view the first User ID use the '%u' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%u file.txt
1000
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Username

To view the files owner username use the '%U' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%U file.txt
sam
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Group ID

To view the Group ID of the file use the '%g' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%g file.txt
1000
sam@asus:~/unix%

Group Name

To view the files Group Name use the '%G' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%G file.txt
sam
sam@asus:~/unix%

File access and creation

Octal Permissons

To view a files permissons in Octal notation use the '%a' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%a file.txt
664
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Symbolic Permissons

To view a files permissons in Symbolic notation use the '%A' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%A file.txt
-rw-rw-r--
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Creation Time

To view a files Creation time use the '%w' format. here the '-' means unknown.

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%w file.txt
-
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Last Access Time

To view a files Last Access time use the '%x' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%x file.txt
2019-04-03 15:50:49.286143171 -0600
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Modified Time

To view a files Last Modified time use the '%y' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%y file.txt
2019-04-03 15:51:07.000699885 -0600
sam@asus:~/unix% 

Last Status Change

To view a files Last Status Change use the '%z' format

sam@asus:~/unix% stat --format=%z file.txt
2019-04-03 15:51:07.000699885 -0600
sam@asus:~/unix%