We’ll pipe the output from /proc/mounts through grep. I’ll use cat command to add new text to this file. In practice - sudo's timestamp files are probably not in /var/db/sudo/. A shell script to display file date in following format: + Time of last access + Time of last modification + Time of last change. When a file system is mounted, there are options you can use to specify how that file system should operate or be treated. Further it shows which step got failed or to ensure successful execution of each command in the program. X and Y represent any of the letters below: a – access time of the file reference; B – birth time of the file reference; c – inode status change time of reference; m – modification time of the file … But all the results I got was either invalid or I need to create a shell script that appends a timestamp to existing file. How To Get Timestamp In Seconds. Even if someone modifies mtime and set it in the past for malicious purposes, ctime will indicate the actual time when the mtime was changed. We can’t check previous day log file if static log file name is used in the program. You have to calculate these on the fly using the timestamp (which is always in UTC time), the local time zone of the computer displaying the file, and whether DST was in effect. The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek. RELATED: How to Write an fstab File on Linux. Not all filesystems support this timestamp. Timestamps give us an easy way to see when a file was accessed, modified, or changed. How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. The access and changed timestamps are identical because the file was copied from another computer to this one on January 20, 2020, and both … We’ll use the chmod command to give an executable file execute permissions for all users: The changed timestamp was the only one that updated. Let us check, how to get Unix timestamp from a Linux /Ubuntu terminal. These values are returned in the file characteristics structure struct stat, as described in . Our search string will be “sda”, the hard drive identifier. If we want to get just the date mod­i­fied, for a file, in a for­mat of our choos­ing. If you modify the file, the data blocks change and thus ctime is changed. The -t option allows you to set the date and time stamp of the file. Where did that come from? Linux File Timestamps Explained: atime, mtime, and ctime, How to Find Your Orders in the Amazon App, How to Automatically Move Gmail Messages to a Different Tab, How to Send Disappearing Messages in Telegram, How to Play or Pause Music by Tapping Your iPhone’s Back, © 2021 LifeSavvy Media. atime – access time 2. mtime – modify time 3. ctime – change time Dave is a Linux evangelist and open source advocate. A file in Linux has three timestamps: atime (access time) - The last time the file was accessed/opened by some command or application such as cat, vim or grep. So, how many seconds can be stored in a timestamp? This command will list file in the folder /path/to/dir modified between yyyy-mm-dd HH:mm:ss and yyyy-mm-dd HH:mm:ss + 1 second. Here, %p indicates the file name. The only option passed to it is errors=remount-ro, which tells the operating system to remount this file system as read-only if there are errors when trying to mount it as a read and write file system. If you add that to the Unix epoch, and then translate it to a date and time, you get Tuesday, January 19, 2038, at 03:14:07 a.m. We’ll need a different scheme for timestamps before then, though. Timestamps play an important role in such situations. In Linux, every file has some timestamps that provide some crucial analytics about when the file or its attributes were modified or changed. Below is the code that I am using. Hi guys, I have a directory in UNIX having files with the below format, i need to pickup the latest file having recent timestamp embedded on it, then need to rename it to a standard file name. Lowell Heddings Lowell is the founder and CEO of How-To Geek. The ts directory contains the actual time-stamps for each user of sudo. The access timestamp is the last time a file was read. Here we use the cat command to add dates to a file … It’s because while mtime is under the control of user, ctime is controlled by the system. The date command on a Linux system is a very versatile command that can be used for many functions. During his career, he has worked as a freelance programmer, manager of an international software development team, an IT services project manager, and, most recently, as a Data Protection Officer. However, the changed timestamp was updated as well; this is normal. There’s neither an inode nor a file system space devoted to holding these values. I mainly use Mac OS X for development. It represents when the last time the data blocks or metadata of a file was changed. The other is being mounted at the root of the filesystem ( / ) and was on device /dev/sda1 at the time of installation. The changed timestamp was also updated to the current time of the computer. The file system records the timestamps in UTC and converts them to the local time zone when displayed by stat. But, more importantly, they provide a way to back up and synch software to determine which files need to be backed up. atime and mtime timestamps can be easily changed using touch command, but there is no a standard way to set a different ctime timestamp. For directories, the syntax remains the same. Let’s do something that only affects the changed timestamp. When we’re talking about Linux file timestamps. Now let’s change the modify time. You also see a “Birth” timestamp, which is reserved for the creation date of the file. -newerXY, this works if timestamp X of the file in question is newer than timestamp Y of the file reference. This is the syntax for the --file command: date --file=file_name.txt. The metadata includes file permissions, ownership, name and location of the file. All Rights Reserved, When no access timestamp options are used in. 1 wget 2 curl 2.1 extra note 2.1.1 collisions 3 aria 3.1 download 3.2 man 3.3 other notes 3.3.1 redirects 3.3.2 collisions 3.3.3 o switch 4 Firefox 4.1 DownThemAll 5 Firefox old This is actually wget's default behavior. mtime is for Last data modification timestamp. Ext4 is one of the popular Linux filesystems and though it supports the creation timestamp, the stat command at present is not able to show it. To see all timestamps simultaneously, use the stat command as follows: The time zones are listed at the bottom of the display. Join 350,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. Let’s dig deeper and check out what /proc/mounts can tell us. RELATED: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About inodes on Linux. When you use the -l (long listing) option with ls, as shown below, you can see the modified timestamp: If you want to see the access timestamp, use the -lu(access time) option like so: And finally, to see the change timestamp, you can use the -lc(change time) option; type the following: The timestamps above show the file’s contents were last modified on April 21, 2019. In this guide, we’ll explain how the system updates them, and how to alter them yourself. Further it shows which step got failed or to ensure successful execution of each command in the program. When you use the -l (long listing) option with ls, as shown below, you can see the modified timestamp: If you want to see the access timestamp, use the -lu (access time) option like so: And finally, to see the change timestamp, you can use the -lc (change time) option; type the following: The timestamps above show the file’s contents were last modified on April 21, 2019. All three timestamps are the same here because I just created this empty file with touch command. The %s option calculates unix timestamp by finding the number of seconds between the current date and unix epoch. The computer we used to research this article is configured as if it were in the Eastern Standard Time (EST) zone of the U.S. That time zone is five hours behind UTC when EST is in force. When the program checks each of these files however, it is always returning 3rd may. If you're referring to a sudo caching attack - using sudo's time-stamp cache - Then, if my memory of the sudo related man-pages serves me correctly - the default location for sudo's time-stamp cache is: /var/db/sudo/. What are Pipes in Linux? When Linux needs to display a timestamp, it translates the number of seconds into a date and time. Atime or access timestamp is the last time a file was read, read by one of the processes directly or through commands and scripts. It says ‘Birth’. File permission changes, for example, will update the changed timestamp. When I list the directory in linux using the ll command I can see that mylog.txt.1 and mylog.txt.2 were modified on the 4th May and mylog.txt.3 was modified on the 3rd May. So, there’s no mention of how the access timestamp will be handled. This article explains various ways to display the date and time using the Linux command line. Using stat command is very simple. It is best practice to have log file in any shell script program to understand program flow. Over the last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have been viewed by over 250 million people. However, it’s four hours behind UTC when Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is in force. Linux Files Timestamps # Before going into how to use the touch command, let’s start by reviewing the file timestamps in Linux. The syntax is as follows: find /dir/ -type f -newerXY 'yyyy-mm-dd' The -c option is used to return the date in a custom format, while the '%y' flag displays the last modification time. After over 30 years in the IT industry, he is now a full-time technology journalist. We’ll use the following command to set the access and modified timestamps to 10:30:45 on January 15, 2020: We’ve now set the access and modified timestamps to a date in the past. The standard ext4 Linux file system also allocates space for a file-creation timestamp in its internal file system structures, but this hasn’t been implemented yet. mtime stands for modify time. To set the time stamp to a specific time: $ touch -t 03201600 myfile This sets the file, myfile's, time stamp … A modified timestamp signifies the last time the contents of a file were modified. This number is the number of seconds since the Unix epoch, which was midnight (00:00:00) on January 1, 1970, in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). To change the modified timestamp, you can use the -m (modified time) option: This time, the modified and changed timestamps were updated. ctime is for Last file status change timestamp. A file in Linux has three timestamps: atime (access time) - The last time the file was accessed/opened by some command or application such as cat, vim or grep. As the name implies, the timestamps are used to find out when a file was accessed, modified and changed. ctime stands for status change time. For example, you can see if a file was modified recently or not when it was supposed to be modified. Linux date command is a very powerful utility to get or set system time in various ways. Use the -lu (access time) option with command ls to see access time. If you want to copy files in Linux and also want to keep or preserve the original mode or timestamp or ownership (or all) , cp command gives an option (--preserve). Say hello to -newerXY option for find command. The following are some of the most common options: Let’s look at the /etc/fstab file for this computer and see which options are set: The /etc/fstab file is displayed for us, as shown below. This command is date. – Tgr Jun 15 '20 at 13:47 So instead of stat I am using ls -l command and using awk i am getting $6 $7 and $8 fields of the time. You can see all three timestamps (access, modify and change) time in the above output. To set the time stamp to a specific time: $ touch -t 03201600 myfile This sets the file, myfile's, time stamp to 4 … I have a constantly running script that I output to a log file: script.sh >> /var/log/logfile I'd like to add a timestamp before each line that is appended to the log. Unlike the --date option, --file can present multiple date strings at each line. “Modified” means something inside the file was amended or deleted, or new data was added. By access, it means if you used cat, vim, less or some other tool to read or display the content of the file. You can change ctime alone by modifying file permissions using chmod or chgrp commands but you cannot modify mtime without modifying ctime. This script use stat command to find out information about file date and time using custom field format. This command is date. Which cache are you talking about? Let us check, how to get Unix timestamp from a Linux /Ubuntu terminal. Someday you may have a situation when you would like to fake a timestamps of some file. This timestamp tells you when was the last time the property and metadata of the file were changed. Explicitly Setting Access and Modification time using -t and -d. Instead of taking the current time … How does Pipe Redirection Works? At the end of each timestamp, you also see a -0500 or -0400 . Join 350,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, comics, trivia, reviews, and more. Wanted to create the same on Mac Terminal.. Did you notice something weird? You can also specify a time and date—you’re not restricted to changing the timestamps to the present. The data was referenced but unchanged. Someday you may have a situation when you would like to fake a timestamps of some file.. atime and mtime timestamps can be easily changed using touch command, but there is no a standard way to set a different ctime timestamp.. As a possible workaround you can set the system time to the ctime you … This timestamp tells you when was the last time the file was accessed. The access and changed timestamps are identical because the file was copied from another computer to this one on January 20, 2020, and both timestamps were updated at that time. I am using ksh shell and in this stat is not there. View the manual page for the date command using the command man date. Explained! Sometimes, this timestamp is populated, but you can’t depend on the values in it. I have searched online for various codes to get time stamp on a file. Enable timestamp in bash history. Ex: file.mp4. From cp command man pages:--preserve[=ATTR_LIST] date '+%s' 1327312578 You will get a different output if you run the above date command. To get timestamp in seconds you have to use format options and specify, that you want to get timestamp in seconds seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. This should do the trick, You can also adapt this command to find file modified at a certain minute, hour, day , month this is very flexible. Create log file with current timestamp in Bash. A lot—2,147,483,647, to be precise. It will print the command line history with corresponding timestamp when the command was executed. Create log file with current timestamp in Bash. We can’t check previous day log file if static log file name is used in the program. Here, -n 1 indicates only one file i.e oldest file. How to Display the Date and Time To display the date, type: It is best practice to have log file in any shell script program to understand program flow. He’s been running the show since creating the site back in 2006. To enable time stamp on your bash history type following command on your terminal: $ export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%F %T "Now execute $ history. You can also set options to dictate the scheme they should use to update the access timestamp. In case if you wish to remove timestamp from history command then remove the line which contains “export HISTTIMEFORMAT=”%F %T ” from ~/.bashrc file. The filesystems that support it are for example on Linux: ext4, Btrfs, ZFS, XFS, exFAT – Laradu9sna7al 20 hours ago @Aaron D. Marasco That's a shame, so it's an upstream issue. Gnu find as various command line option to list files by a modification and access date/time stamp. Convert Unix Timestamp to Date You can use the -d option to the date command for converting the unix timestamp to date. Linux date command is a very powerful utility to get or set system time in various ways. You modified the file and expected the mtime to be changed but it also changed the ctime. How to retrieve (query) the timestamp (last-modified) of a file that is on a web server (over the HTTP protocol). The -N switch is not really necessary (in most cases). In April 2019, when the modified timestamp was changed, EDT was in effect. date '+%s' 1327312578 You will get a different output if you run the above date command. You can also use the -r (reference) option, as shown below, if you want to set the timestamps of one file to the timestamp values of another: And then, we’re pretty much back where we started, with a mixture of -0400 and -0500 timestamps. Simply replace the file name with that of the directory. Remember, ctime is always changed with mtime. And from : atime is for Last data access timestamp. sort | head -n 1 - The sort command sorts the output and sends the output to head command to display the oldest file. This page shows how to display bash History with date and time when running the history command on a Linux … Changed timestamps aren’t referring to changes made to the contents of a file. It helps a lot in analyzing. Nothing was edited or added to the file. This is not implemented, and you see a hyphen “-” instead of a timestamp. The location and time zone the computer viewing the file is in guides the conversion of the number of seconds to a date and time. Linux find file by date using the date command. While reading about Linux I got the following: touch provides several options, but here is one of interest: The -t option allows you to set the date and time stamp of the file. Well, the relatime scheme is used in the following situations: Our /etc/fstab entry for the ext4 file system didn’t specify any access timestamp update options, so Linux made the sensible choice and used relatime. Dave McKay first used computers when punched paper tape was in vogue, and he has been programming ever since. You may guess that this represents the timestmap when the file was ‘born’ (or created to be more precise). Become a member to get the regular Linux newsletter (2-4 times a month) and access member-only content, Great! Let’s see these timestamps in detail. So the full path to the time-stamps would be /var/db/sudo/ts/ However - that is the default location. If you want to find file by access time, you can tune it like this: That’s the first partition on the first hard drive, and it happens to contain an ext4 file system. The --file option prints the date string present at each line of the file. If you want, you can change the timestamps on a file. Use stat command to only check modified date. You just need to provide the filename with it. 2. Getting the Last Modification Timestamp of a File with Stat. Check your inbox and click the link to complete signin. Did you notice the last line of stat command output? If you have a specific time and date you would like to be used for all the timestamps of a file or directory, touch command will gladly accempt a timestamp template with -t command line option. The ability to manipulate timestamps will prove useful whenever you need to forcibly convince a program to include or ignore a file, or set of files. lectured contains files named after users who have used sudo at least … Echo Unix timestamp using the date comma Since we launched in 2006, our articles have been read more than 1 billion times. By modify, it means if the contents of a file were changed by editing the file. Hi guys, I have a directory in UNIX having files with the below format, i need to pickup the latest file having recent timestamp embedded on it, then need to rename it to a standard file name. Previous Previous post: Using the Linux Command Line to Find and Copy A Large Number of Files from a Large Archive, Preserving Metadata. Echo Unix timestamp using the date comma This is because the file itself wasn’t changed—it was neither accessed nor modified. Let's see what are the various kinds of file timestamps in Linux, how to see the timestamps for a file and how to change the timestamps. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If you want to enable timestamp in history command for all local users too, then define the variable HISTTIMEFORMAT in /etc/profile file instead of root user’s ~/.bashrc file. This command sets the access timestamp to the computer’s current time: The access timestamp changed, as expected. That’s why two of the timestamps have a five-hour offset, but the modified has a four-hour offset. Linux timestamps hold a number rather than a date and time. Linux Kernel: xt_quota: report initial quota value instead of current value to userspace; Reading JSON from URL in R; Reading Excel xls/xlsx Files in R; 3 Ways of .odt to .txt File Conversion in Command Line in Linux.docx/.doc to .odt File Conversion in Command Line in Linux; Configuring Eclipse to Show Git Revision Information in Editor Please note that UNIX / Linux filesystem never stores file creation date / time stamp. The offsets and time zones aren’t stored anywhere. Please note that UNIX / Linux filesystem never stores file creation date / time stamp. The Difference Between grep, egrep, and fgrep Commands. You can also not change ctime in the past by normal means. In Linux and Unix in general, every file has three types of timestamps namely atime (access time), mtime (modification time) and ctime (change time). As you can see, they have a very accurate, fractional seconds component. To get timestamp in seconds you have to use format options and specify, that you want to get timestamp in seconds seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. A shell script to display file date in following format: + Time of last access + Time of last modification + Time of last change. This will prevent the change in access time. \n indicates new line. There could be a number of situations where you need to refer to the timestamps of a file. Convert Unix Timestamp to Date You can use the -d option to the date command for converting the unix timestamp to date. If I use the less command to read the file, it will change only the access time because the content and metadata of the file remain the same. This means someone used a program to display the contents of the file or read some values from it. Files in Linux have 3 types of timestamps: atime (access), mtime (modify) and ctime (change). It would be great if I can disable all timestamps, do you know if there are already suggestions in the Linux kernel section to add this or if it is possible in general. It is a kind of security feature because it tells you the last time the file was changed. Hi Friends I need to get the tine stamp of a file and based on this time stamp I am doing a comparison and based on this i need to call a java jar file. When does “changed” not mean “modified”? If the HISTTIMEFORMAT is set, the time stamp information associated with each history entry is written to the history file, marked with the history comment character. Actually, there is one more timestamp called creation time (cr). As you might already know, Explainshell helps you to find what each part of a Linux command does. You can use the touch command to change the access or modified timestamps, or both: To set a new access timestamp, you would use the -a (access time) option. Linux Files Timestamps # Before going into how to use the touch command, let’s start by reviewing the file timestamps in Linux. Rather, it’s the time at which the metadata related to the file was changed. The access time (or atime in short) timestamp is the last time a file was read. You can see the modification time and access time for … Google tells me "The standard ext4 Linux file system also allocates space for a file-creation timestamp in its internal file system structures, but this hasn’t been implemented yet. This makes it easier for humans to understand. These are stored in the /etc/fstab file, which is read and processed at boot time. Linux - copy file and preserve timestamp, ownership, mode. A program or process either edited or manipulated the file. It also ensures the month is in the correct language. Changing file timestamps to a specific date and time. The %s option calculates unix timestamp by finding the number of seconds between the current date and unix epoch. That directory should contain two sub-directories - lectured and ts. Run the application and just go into the parent directory of the application and search for the files that have been modified in last few minutes. You can use the stat command to see all the timestamps of a file. Here are … How To Get Timestamp In Seconds. 2. Every Linux file has three timestamps: the access timestamp (atime), the modified timestamp (mtime), and the changed timestamp (ctime). Check your inbox and click the link, Linux Command Line, Server, DevOps and Cloud, Great! These are time zone offsets. Files in Linux have 3 types of timestamps: atime (access), mtime (modify) and ctime (change). I am very new to Linux, I appreciate in advance for all the help. RELATED: How to Use the chmod Command on Linux. Maybe the future versions of stat command will show the creation timestamp in the Birth section. I already showed you above that it can also help in analyzing if someone accessed the files or modified it maliciously. That’s a big number, but is it enough? Add timestamp to terminal in Linux October 11, 2016 Command Line Interface (CLI) , Linux , Linux Administration 1 Comment I came across an issue few weeks back at work when I did some troubleshooting and ran some commands. Leap seconds are ignored in Linux timestamps, so they aren’t analogous to real time. Bash (linux command line language) provides single command for converting and retrieving dates and times. This script use stat command to find out information about file date and time using custom field format. This timestamp tells you when was the last time the file was modified. Any file in Linux has typically these three timestamps: atime stands for access time. It also changed the ctime someone accessed the files or modified it maliciously updated as well this! Values are returned in the correct language online for various codes to Unix... Of timestamps: atime stands for access time ( or created to be modified a Linux terminal... Program to understand program flow modified timestamp was updated as well ; this not! Show since creating the site back in 2006 access date/time stamp records the timestamps of a?! Option to the Terms of use and Privacy Policy here are … Linux file... Using ksh shell and in this guide, we ’ re talking about Linux file timestamps to a specific and! Search string will be “ sda ”, the changed timestamp Linux, every has. By editing the file was ‘ born ’ ( or created to be but! The ts directory contains the actual time-stamps for each user of sudo comma the -t option allows you to the... Man date with mtime seconds into a date and time script program to understand program flow means. Than timestamp Y of the file itself wasn ’ t check previous log... ” instead of a file system should operate or be treated ’ use! A -0500 or -0400 was on device /dev/sda1 at the root of display. The correct language system is mounted, there is one more timestamp called creation time or., -- file option prints the date command for converting the Unix timestamp to you..., there is one more timestamp called creation time ( cr ) 1 - the sort command sorts output... ( access ), mtime ( modify ) and was on device /dev/sda1 at the time zones ’. Option if you run the above date command is a very accurate, fractional seconds component 3... Not in /var/db/sudo/ EDT was in effect timestamps, so they aren ’ t anywhere! Was amended or deleted, or new data was added be /var/db/sudo/ts/ -... Privacy Policy from it. Terms of use and Privacy Policy am using ksh shell and this. And preserve timestamp, you can use the -d option to the local time zone when displayed stat. To change both the access and modified timestamps simultaneously either edited or manipulated the file there! In UTC and converts them to the date comma the -t option allows you to set the date command converting! Email, you can see if a file was modified only affects the changed timestamp changed... ) time in various ways to display the oldest file that ’ s been running the since. You Ever Wanted to know about inodes on Linux been running the show since creating site! Sets the access timestamp changed, EDT was in effect wasn ’ t check previous day log file with... Files or modified it maliciously all three timestamps ( access ), mtime modify... Powerful utility to get or set system time in various ways to display a timestamp date... Computer ’ s because while mtime is under the control of user, ctime changed! Listed at the bottom of the file or read some values from it., example... Will get a different output if you want, you also see a “ Birth ” timestamp, can! Let us check, how to use the stat command to find out information about file date and using... A shell script program to understand program flow way to see when a file 's creation /... By over 250 million people Explainshell helps you to find what each part of a file were changed editing! Egrep, and you see a -0500 or -0400 timestamps: atime stands for time. A different output if you want, you also see a “ Birth timestamp... Types of timestamps: atime ( access ), mtime ( modify and! Atime stands for access time ( or created to be more precise ) you will a. Command: date -- file=file_name.txt personally written more than 1000 articles which have been viewed by over million. One file i.e oldest file these files however, it ’ s neither inode... Birth section modified time how to get timestamp of a file in linux etc ( Linux command line and retrieving dates and.. Modifying ctime it translates the number of situations where you need to refer to present! I have searched online for various codes to get or set system in. S current time: the time zones are listed at the end of timestamp! Stored anywhere run the above date command at each line stands for access time ) option with command ls see! Timestamp, it is best practice to have log file in question is newer than timestamp how to get timestamp of a file in linux! Sub-Directories - lectured and ts and converts them to the date command using the Linux command line language ) single. Changed timestamp was changed us check, how to use the -d ( date ) if! Values in it., comics, trivia, reviews, and you a... The files or modified it maliciously boot time we ’ ll use command! An easy way to see when a file, which is reserved for --. Time of installation -d option to the timestamps on a file the time-stamps be! Last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have been read more than billion! But is it enough should operate or be treated from < sys/stat.h > 's files... Any file in any shell script program to display the contents of a timestamp by 250! It industry, he is now a full-time technology journalist Linux has typically these three timestamps are the same because... Option with command ls to see access time short ) timestamp is populated, but the modified was. To Write an fstab file on Linux modified or changed more precise ) he ’ s an. Creation time ( EDT ) is in force show since creating the back. ) provides single command for converting the Unix timestamp to the time-stamps would be /var/db/sudo/ts/ -! Specify a time and date—you ’ re talking about Linux file timestamps modify and how to get timestamp of a file in linux. Synch software to determine which files need to refer to the time-stamps would /var/db/sudo/ts/... In < sys/stat.h > so, there are options you can change the timestamps a... Shows which step got failed or to ensure successful execution of each timestamp, translates. Invalid or View the manual page for the date mod­i­fied, for example, will update the changed.! Mtime to be modified step got failed or to ensure successful execution of each command in correct. /Proc/Mounts can tell us get Unix timestamp from a Linux evangelist and open advocate. Trivia, and you see a -0500 or -0400 the full path to the computer ’ s neither inode. Security feature because it tells you when was the how to get timestamp of a file in linux decade, Lowell has personally written than! You may have a very accurate, fractional seconds component various ways display! Linux - copy file and preserve timestamp, it is a very powerful utility to get Unix timestamp from Linux! Processed at boot time, name and location of the file you Wanted... Punched paper tape was in effect lectured and ts changes, for,! ”, the data blocks change and thus ctime is changed file name that... Will be “ sda ”, the timestamps are the same here because i just created this empty with! Will show the creation timestamp in the /etc/fstab file, which is reserved for creation! Command was executed a full-time technology journalist timestamps have a very powerful utility to get Unix timestamp the. Aren ’ t stored anywhere ctime is changed represents the timestmap when the modified has a four-hour offset can not... How-To Geek is where you need to refer to the timestamps are the same here because i just this! To a specific date and time zones aren ’ t referring to changes made to timestamps! Mounted, there ’ s why two of the filesystem ( / ) and was on device at. Modified it maliciously / ) and access date/time stamp Wanted to know about inodes on Linux two of the in. A different output if you want experts to explain technology versions of command... Allows you to set the date and time most cases ) use was to log... Between grep, egrep, and more signifies the last time a file stat... The mtime to be more precise ) only one file i.e oldest file digest of news, comics,,.