Linux in a Nutshell, 6th 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, --format=format

Display the output as specified by format.

-f, --filesystem

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

--help

Display help information and exit.

-L, --dereference

Follow links and display information about the files found.

-t, --terse

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

--version

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 block size

• Last access time

• Last modification time

• Last change time

• Security context for SELinux

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

• Filesystem type

• Filesystem block size

• 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. In addition, the field width and precision options ...