Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Name

stat

Synopsis

                  stat [options] files
               

Print out the contents of an inode as they appear to the stat system call in a human-readable format. The error messages “Can’t stat file” and “Can’t lstat file” usually mean the file doesn’t exist. “Can’t readlink file” generally indicates that something is wrong with a symbolic link.

Options

-c format

Display the output as specified by format.

-f

Display information about the filesystem where the file is located, not about the file itself.

-l

For links, display information about the files found by following the links.

-s

For SE (Security Enhanced) Linux, show security information, if it’s available, in addition to stat’s normal output.

-t

Print the output tersely, in a form suitable for parsing by other programs.

-v

Print version information and exit.

Output

stat and stat -l display the following:

• Device number

• Inode number

• Access rights

• Number of hard links

• Owner’s user ID and name, if available

• Owner’s group ID and name, if available

• Device type for inode device

• Total size, in bytes

• Number of blocks allocated

• I/O blocksize

• Last access time

• Last modification time

• Last change time

• Security context for SE Linux

If -f is specified, stat displays the following information about the filesystem:

• Filesystem type

• Filesystem blocksize

• Total blocks in the filesystem

• Number of free blocks

• Number of free blocks for nonroot users

• Total number of inodes

• Number of free inodes

• Maximum filename length

Format

The printf(3) flag characters #, 0, -, +, and space can be used in format ...