stat It is a command-line utility that displays detailed information about files that are passed as arguments or system files.
This article describes how to use the stat command.
Using commands stat
Grammar for orders stat They are as follows:
stat [OPTION]... FILE...stat Accepts one or more entry names FILE It includes a number of options that control command and output behavior.
Let’s look at an example:
stat file.txt
The output will look like this:
File: file.txt Size: 4030 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 801h/2049d Inode: 13633379 Links: 1 Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 1000/ linuxize) Gid: ( 1000/ linuxize) Access: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.991878701 +0100 Modify: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.971878714 +0100 Change: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.971878714 +0100 Birth: -
When connected without options, stat It will display the information from the file as follows:
- Files – File name.
- Size – The file size in bytes.
- Lumps – Number of custom blocks the file retrieves.
- IO Block – Size in bytes per block.
- file type – (such as regular files, directories, symbolic links …)
- Device – The device number is in hexadecimal and decimal.
- The anode – Inode number.
- Links – The number of hard links.
- being able to – File permissions by digital and symbolic methods
- Uid Username and owner name.
- good – Group ID and owner name.
- Context – SELinux Security Context.
- being able to – The last time the file was accessed.
- Modify – The last time the file content was changed.
- They change – The last time a file’s attributes or contents were changed.
- Birth – File creation time (not supported on Linux).
Displays information about the file system
To get information about the file system where the specified file is located, instead of information about the file itself, use -f, (--file-system):
stat -f file.txt
The command output will look like this:
File: "package.json"
ID: 8eb56097b4564d20 Namelen: 255 Type: ext2/ext3
Block size: 4096 Fundamental block size: 4096
Blocks: Total: 61371211 Free: 24595668 Available: 22365251
Inodes: Total: 15645336 Free: 13899610
when stat Called with options -f, stat The following information will appear:
- Files – File name.
- ID – The file system identifier in hexadecimal.
- Namlin – The maximum length of the file name.
- Primary block size – The size of each block in the file system.
- Lumps:
- sum – The total number of blocks in the file system.
- Free – The number of blocks available in the file system.
- Available – Number of blocks available for non-root users.
- INODS:
- sum – Total number of inodes in the file system.
- Free – Number of inodes available in the file system.
Symbolic links (follow)
By default, stat Do not follow symbolic links. If you run a command on the symbolic link, the output will include information about the symbolic link, not the file it refers to:
stat /etc/resolv.conf
File: /etc/resolv.conf -> ../run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf Size: 39 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 symbolic link Device: 801h/2049d Inode: 8122259 Links: 1 Access: (0777/lrwxrwxrwx) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root) Access: 2019-11-06 21:12:26.834956073 +0100 Modify: 2019-08-14 12:11:48.122354519 +0200 Change: 2019-08-14 12:11:48.122354519 +0200 Birth: -
To unmark (follow) the symbolic link and display information about the file that the symbolic link is pointing to, use an extension -L, (--dereference):
stat -L /etc/resolv.conf
File: /etc/resolv.conf Size: 715 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 17h/23d Inode: 989 Links: 1 Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 101/systemd-resolve) Gid: ( 103/systemd-resolve) Access: 2019-11-06 21:12:26.834956073 +0100 Modify: 2019-08-14 12:11:48.122354519 +0200 Change: 2019-08-14 12:11:48.122354519 +0200 Birth: -
Customize the output
Command stat It has two options that allow you to customize the output to suit your needs: -c, (--format="format") And the --printf="format".
The difference between these two options is when two or more files are used as parameters --format Automatically adds a new line after each parameter output. --Printf Interpretation of backslash escape.
There are several file formats and file systems directives that you can use with --format And the --printf.
For example, to see only the file types you’ll use:
stat --format="%F" /dev/null
character special file
You can combine any number of formatting directions and optionally use a custom separator between them. The separator can be a single character or a string:
stat --format="%n,%F" /dev/null
/dev/null,character special file
To interpret special characters such as new lines or tabs, use the options --printf:
stat --printf="Name: %nnPermissions: %an" /etc
n Type a new line:
Name: /etc Permissions: 755
Stat Information can also be presented in a short form. This format is useful for analysis by other utilities.
Activate the command with options -t (--terse) To print the output in short form:
stat -t /etc
/etc 12288 24 41ed 0 0 801 8134465 147 0 0 1543063333 1543063333 1543063333 0 4096
For a complete list of all formatting directives for files and file systems, type man stat or stat --help In your Linux distribution station.
Conclusion
The stat command prints information about the specified file and system details.
In Linux, there are many other commands that can display information about a specific file, with the ls Most used, but it only shows partial, not complete information like that provided by the command stat.