{"id":12421,"date":"2019-03-26T23:33:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T23:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/?p=12421"},"modified":"2019-03-26T23:33:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T23:33:18","slug":"5-stat-command-examples-for-linux-newbies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appservgrid.com\/paw92\/index.php\/2019\/03\/26\/5-stat-command-examples-for-linux-newbies\/","title":{"rendered":"5 \u2018stat\u2019 Command Examples for Linux Newbies"},"content":{"rendered":"

stat command<\/strong>\u00a0is a useful utility for viewing file or file system status. It retrieves information such as file type; access rights in octal and human-readable;\u00a0SELinux security context string<\/a>; time of file birth, last access,\u00a0last data modification<\/a>, last status change in both human-readable and in seconds since Epoch, and much more.<\/p>\n

It has an option to specify a custom format instead of the default, for displaying information. In this guide, we will look at five stat command examples for Linux newbies.<\/p>\n

Check Linux File Status<\/h3>\n

1.<\/strong>\u00a0The easiest way to use\u00a0stat<\/strong>\u00a0is to provide it a file as an argument. The following command will display the size, blocks, IO blocks, file type, inode value, number of links and much more information about the file \/var\/log\/syslog, as shown in the screenshot:<\/p>\n

$ stat \/var\/log\/syslog<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFile: '\/var\/log\/syslog'\r\n  Size: 26572     \tBlocks: 56         IO Block: 4096   regular file\r\nDevice: 80ah\/2058d\tInode: 8129076     Links: 1\r\nAccess: (0640\/-rw-r-----)  Uid: (  104\/  syslog)   Gid: (    4\/     adm)\r\nAccess: 2018-04-06 09:42:10.987615337 +0530\r\nModify: 2018-04-06 11:09:29.756650149 +0530\r\nChange: 2018-04-06 11:09:29.756650149 +0530\r\n Birth: -\r\n<\/pre>\n
Check File System Status<\/h3>\n
2.<\/strong>\u00a0In the previous example, stat command treated the input file as a normal file, however, to display file system status instead of file status, use the\u00a0-f<\/code>\u00a0option.<\/p>\n
$ stat -f \/var\/log\/syslog<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFile: \"\/var\/log\/syslog\"\r\n    ID: ce97e63d2201c974 Namelen: 255     Type: ext2\/ext3\r\nBlock size: 4096       Fundamental block size: 4096\r\nBlocks: Total: 84769790   Free: 16012830   Available: 11700997\r\nInodes: Total: 21544960   Free: 20995459\r\n<\/pre>\n
You can also provide a directory\/filesystem as an argument as shown.<\/center><\/p>\n
$ stat -f \/<\/strong>\r\n\r\nFile: \"\/\"\r\n    ID: ce97e63d2201c974 Namelen: 255     Type: ext2\/ext3\r\nBlock size: 4096       Fundamental block size: 4096\r\nBlocks: Total: 84769790   Free: 16056471   Available: 11744638\r\nInodes: Total: 21544960   Free: 21005263\r\n<\/pre>\n
Enable Following of Symbolic Links<\/h3>\n
3.<\/strong>\u00a0Since Linux supports links (symbolic<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0hard links<\/strong>), certain files may have one or more links, or they could even exist in a filesystem.<\/p>\n
To enable stat to follow links, use the\u00a0-L<\/code>\u00a0flag as shown.<\/p>\n
$ stat -L \/<\/strong>\r\n\r\n File: '\/'\r\n  Size: 4096      \tBlocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   directory\r\nDevice: 80ah\/2058d\tInode: 2           Links: 25<\/strong>\r\nAccess: (0755\/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0\/    root)   Gid: (    0\/    root)\r\nAccess: 2018-04-09 10:55:55.119150525 +0530\r\nModify: 2018-02-20 11:15:54.462893167 +0530\r\nChange: 2018-02-20 11:15:54.462893167 +0530\r\n Birth: -<\/pre>\n
Use a Custom Format To Display Information<\/h3>\n
4.<\/strong>\u00a0stat<\/strong>\u00a0also allows you to use a particular or custom format instead of the default. The\u00a0-c<\/code>\u00a0flag is used to specify the format used, it prints a newline after each use of format sequence.<\/p>\n
Alternatively, you can use the\u00a0--printf<\/code>\u00a0option which enables interpreting of backslash escapes sequences and turns off printing of a trailing newline. You need to use\u00a0\\n<\/code>\u00a0in the format to print a new line, for example.<\/p>\n
# stat --printf='%U\\n%G\\n%C\\n%z\\n' \/var\/log\/secure\r\n<\/pre>\n
Meaning of the format sequences for files used in above example:<\/p>\n