usr.bin/stat/stat.1

.\"	$NetBSD: stat.1,v 1.28 2010/04/05 21:25:01 joerg Exp $
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.\" Copyright (c) 2002 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Andrew Brown and Jan Schaumann.
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2025 Klara, Inc.
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.Dd September 9, 2025
.Dt STAT 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm stat ,
.Nm readlink
.Nd display file status
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl FHhLnq
.Op Fl f Ar format | Fl l | r | s | x
.Op Fl t Ar timefmt
.Op Ar
.Nm readlink
.Op Fl fn
.Op Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility displays information about the file pointed to by
.Ar file .
Read, write, or execute permissions of the named file are not required, but
all directories listed in the pathname leading to the file must be
searchable.
If no argument is given,
.Nm
displays information about the file descriptor for standard input.
.Pp
When invoked as
.Nm readlink ,
only the target of the symbolic link is printed.
If the given argument is not a symbolic link and the
.Fl f
option is not specified,
.Nm readlink
will print nothing and exit with an error.
If the
.Fl f
option is specified, the output is canonicalized by following every symlink
in every component of the given path recursively.
.Nm readlink
will resolve both absolute and relative paths, and return the absolute pathname
corresponding to
.Ar file .
In this case, the argument does not need to be a symbolic link.
.Pp
The information displayed is obtained by calling
.Xr lstat 2
with the given argument and evaluating the returned structure.
The default format displays the
.Fa st_dev ,
.Fa st_ino ,
.Fa st_mode ,
.Fa st_nlink ,
.Fa st_uid ,
.Fa st_gid ,
.Fa st_rdev ,
.Fa st_size ,
.Fa st_atime ,
.Fa st_mtime ,
.Fa st_ctime ,
.Fa st_birthtime ,
.Fa st_blksize ,
.Fa st_blocks ,
and
.Fa st_flags
fields, in that order.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl F
As in
.Xr ls 1 ,
display a slash
.Pq Ql /
immediately after each pathname that is a directory,
an asterisk
.Pq Ql *
after each that is executable,
an at sign
.Pq Ql @
after each symbolic link,
a percent sign
.Pq Ql %
after each whiteout,
an equal sign
.Pq Ql =
after each socket,
and a vertical bar
.Pq Ql |
after each that is a FIFO.
The use of
.Fl F
implies
.Fl l .
.It Fl H
Treat each argument as the hexadecimal representation of an NFS file handle,
and use
.Xr fhstat 2
instead of
.Xr lstat 2 .
This requires root privileges.
.It Fl h
For each file argument, print a line consisting of a comma-separated
list of holes, a space, and the file name.
Each hole is reported as its starting offset as a decimal number
followed by a hyphen and the ending offset (one less than the starting
offset of the data region that follows the hole) as a decimal number.
If the file ends in a hole, the ending offset of the final hole will
be one less than the size of the file.
Otherwise, the final entry in the list (indeed, the only entry in the
list, if the file is not sparse), is a single decimal number
corresponding to the size of the file, representing the virtual hole
at the end of the file.
.Pp
If the argument is a directory, instead of a list of holes, a single
number is printed, corresponding to the minimum hole size for that
directory as reported by
.Xr pathconf 2 ,
followed by a space and the directory name.
.Pp
Please note that the only way to retrieve information about the holes
in a file is to open it and walk the list of holes and data regions
using
.Xr lseek 2 .
If the file is being modified by another process at the same time as
.Nm
is inspecting it, the result may be inconsistent.
.Pp
This option cannot be combined with the
.Fl F ,
.Fl f ,
.Fl H ,
.Fl L ,
.Fl l ,
.Fl r ,
.Fl s ,
.Fl t ,
or
.Fl x
options.
.It Fl L
Use
.Xr stat 2
instead of
.Xr lstat 2 .
The information reported by
.Nm
will refer to the target of
.Ar file ,
if file is a symbolic link, and not to
.Ar file
itself.
If the link is broken or the target does not exist,
fall back on
.Xr lstat 2
and report information about the link.
.It Fl n
Do not force a newline to appear at the end of each piece of output.
.It Fl q
Suppress failure messages if calls to
.Xr stat 2
or
.Xr lstat 2
fail.
When run as
.Nm readlink ,
error messages are automatically suppressed.
.It Fl f Ar format
Display information using the specified format.
See the
.Sx Formats
section for a description of valid formats.
.It Fl l
Display output in
.Nm ls Fl lT
format.
.It Fl r
Display raw information.
That is, for all the fields in the
.Vt stat
structure,
display the raw, numerical value (for example, times in seconds since the
epoch, etc.).
.It Fl s
Display information in
.Dq shell output
format,
suitable for initializing variables.
.It Fl t Ar timefmt
Display timestamps using the specified format.
This format is
passed directly to
.Xr strftime 3 .
.It Fl x
Display information in a more verbose way as known from some
.Tn Linux
distributions.
.El
.Ss Formats
Format strings are similar to
.Xr printf 3
formats in that they start with
.Cm % ,
are then followed by a sequence of formatting characters, and end in
a character that selects the field of the
.Vt "struct stat"
which is to be formatted.
If the
.Cm %
is immediately followed by one of
.Cm n , t , % ,
or
.Cm @ ,
then a newline character, a tab character, a percent character,
or the current file number is printed, otherwise the string is
examined for the following:
.Pp
Any of the following optional flags:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Cm #
Selects an alternate output form for octal and hexadecimal output.
Non-zero octal output will have a leading zero, and non-zero
hexadecimal output will have
.Dq Li 0x
prepended to it.
.It Cm +
Asserts that a sign indicating whether a number is positive or negative
should always be printed.
Non-negative numbers are not usually printed
with a sign.
.It Cm -
Aligns string output to the left of the field, instead of to the right.
.It Cm 0
Sets the fill character for left padding to the
.Ql 0
character, instead of a space.
.It space
Reserves a space at the front of non-negative signed output fields.
A
.Sq Cm +
overrides a space if both are used.
.El
.Pp
Then the following fields:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ar size
An optional decimal digit string specifying the minimum field width.
.It Ar prec
An optional precision composed of a decimal point
.Sq Cm \&.
and a decimal digit string that indicates the maximum string length,
the number of digits to appear after the decimal point in floating point
output, or the minimum number of digits to appear in numeric output.
.It Ar fmt
An optional output format specifier which is one of
.Cm D , O , U , X , F ,
or
.Cm S .
These represent signed decimal output, octal output, unsigned decimal
output, hexadecimal output, floating point output, and string output,
respectively.
Some output formats do not apply to all fields.
Floating point output only applies to
.Vt timespec
fields (the
.Cm a , m ,
and
.Cm c
fields).
.Pp
The special output specifier
.Cm S
may be used to indicate that the output, if
applicable, should be in string format.
May be used in combination with:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Cm amc
Display date in
.Xr strftime 3
format.
.It Cm dr
Display actual device name.
.It Cm f
Display the flags of
.Ar file
as in
.Nm ls Fl lTdo .
.It Cm gu
Display group or user name.
.It Cm p
Display the mode of
.Ar file
as in
.Nm ls Fl lTd .
.It Cm N
Displays the name of
.Ar file .
.It Cm T
Displays the type of
.Ar file .
.It Cm Y
Insert a
.Dq Li " -\*[Gt] "
into the output.
Note that the default output format
for
.Cm Y
is a string, but if specified explicitly, these four characters are
prepended.
.El
.It Ar sub
An optional sub field specifier (high, middle, low).
Only applies to
the
.Cm p , d , r ,
and
.Cm T
output formats.
It can be one of the following:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Cm H
.Dq High
\[em]
specifies the major number for devices from
.Cm r
or
.Cm d ,
the
.Dq user
bits for permissions from the string form of
.Cm p ,
the file
.Dq type
bits from the numeric forms of
.Cm p ,
and the long output form of
.Cm T .
.It Cm L
.Dq Low
\[em]
specifies the minor number for devices from
.Cm r
or
.Cm d ,
the
.Dq other
bits for permissions from the string form of
.Cm p ,
the
.Dq user ,
.Dq group ,
and
.Dq other
bits from the numeric forms of
.Cm p ,
and the
.Nm ls Fl F
style output character for file type when used with
.Cm T
(the use of
.Cm L
for this is optional).
.It Cm M
.Dq Middle
\[em]
specifies the
.Dq group
bits for permissions from the
string output form of
.Cm p ,
or the
.Dq suid ,
.Dq sgid ,
and
.Dq sticky
bits for the numeric forms of
.Cm p .
.El
.It Ar datum
A required field specifier, being one of the following:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Cm d
Device upon which
.Ar file
resides
.Pq Fa st_dev .
.It Cm i
.Ar file Ns 's
inode number
.Pq Fa st_ino .
.It Cm p
File type and permissions
.Pq Fa st_mode .
.It Cm l
Number of hard links to
.Ar file
.Pq Fa st_nlink .
.It Cm u , g
User ID and group ID of
.Ar file Ns 's
owner
.Pq Fa st_uid , st_gid .
.It Cm r
Device number for character and block device special files
.Pq Fa st_rdev .
.It Cm a , m , c , B
The time
.Ar file
was last accessed or modified, or when the inode was last changed, or
the birth time of the inode
.Pq Fa st_atime , st_mtime , st_ctime , st_birthtime .
.It Cm z
The size of
.Ar file
in bytes
.Pq Fa st_size .
.It Cm b
Number of blocks allocated for
.Ar file
.Pq Fa st_blocks .
.It Cm k
Optimal file system I/O operation block size
.Pq Fa st_blksize .
.It Cm f
User defined flags for
.Ar file .
.It Cm v
Inode generation number
.Pq Fa st_gen .
.El
.Pp
The following five field specifiers are not drawn directly from the
data in
.Vt "struct stat" ,
but are:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Cm N
The name of the file.
.It Cm R
The absolute pathname corresponding to the file.
.It Cm T
The file type, either as in
.Nm ls Fl F
or in a more descriptive form if the
.Ar sub
field specifier
.Cm H
is given.
.It Cm Y
The target of a symbolic link.
.It Cm Z
Expands to
.Dq major,minor
from the
.Va rdev
field for character or block
special devices and gives size output for all others.
.El
.El
.Pp
Only the
.Cm %
and the field specifier are required.
Most field specifiers default to
.Cm U
as an output form, with the
exception of
.Cm p
which defaults to
.Cm O ;
.Cm a , m ,
and
.Cm c
which default to
.Cm D ;
and
.Cm Y , T ,
and
.Cm N
which default to
.Cm S .
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std stat readlink
.Sh EXAMPLES
If no options are specified, the default format is
"%d %i %Sp %l %Su %Sg %r %z \e"%Sa\e" \e"%Sm\e" \e"%Sc\e" \e"%SB\e" %k %b %#Xf %N".
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] stat /tmp/bar
0 78852 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 0 "Jul  8 10:26:03 2004" "Jul  8 10:26:03 2004" "Jul  8 10:28:13 2004" "Jan  1 09:00:00 1970" 16384 0 0 /tmp/bar
.Ed
.Pp
Given a symbolic link
.Dq foo
that points from
.Pa /tmp/foo
to
.Pa / ,
you would use
.Nm
as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] stat -F /tmp/foo
lrwxrwxrwx 1 jschauma cs 1 Apr 24 16:37:28 2002 /tmp/foo@ -\*[Gt] /

\*[Gt] stat -LF /tmp/foo
drwxr-xr-x 16 root wheel 512 Apr 19 10:57:54 2002 /tmp/foo/
.Ed
.Pp
To initialize some shell variables, you could use the
.Fl s
flag as follows:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] csh
% eval set `stat -s .cshrc`
% echo $st_size $st_mtimespec
1148 1015432481

\*[Gt] sh
$ eval $(stat -s .profile)
$ echo $st_size $st_mtimespec
1148 1015432481
.Ed
.Pp
In order to get a list of file types including files pointed to if the
file is a symbolic link, you could use the following format:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
$ stat -f "%N: %HT%SY" /tmp/*
/tmp/bar: Symbolic Link -\*[Gt] /tmp/foo
/tmp/output25568: Regular File
/tmp/blah: Directory
/tmp/foo: Symbolic Link -\*[Gt] /
.Ed
.Pp
In order to get a list of the devices, their types and the major and minor
device numbers, formatted with tabs and linebreaks, you could use the
following format:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
stat -f "Name: %N%n%tType: %HT%n%tMajor: %Hr%n%tMinor: %Lr%n%n" /dev/*
[...]
Name: /dev/wt8
        Type: Block Device
        Major: 3
        Minor: 8

Name: /dev/zero
        Type: Character Device
        Major: 2
        Minor: 12
.Ed
.Pp
In order to determine the permissions set on a file separately, you could use
the following format:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] stat -f "%Sp -\*[Gt] owner=%SHp group=%SMp other=%SLp" .
drwxr-xr-x -\*[Gt] owner=rwx group=r-x other=r-x
.Ed
.Pp
In order to determine the three files that have been modified most recently,
you could use the following format:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] stat -f "%m%t%Sm %N" /tmp/* | sort -rn | head -3 | cut -f2-
Apr 25 11:47:00 2002 /tmp/blah
Apr 25 10:36:34 2002 /tmp/bar
Apr 24 16:47:35 2002 /tmp/foo
.Ed
.Pp
To display a file's modification time:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] stat -f %m /tmp/foo
1177697733
.Ed
.Pp
To display the same modification time in a readable format:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] stat -f %Sm /tmp/foo
Apr 27 11:15:33 2007
.Ed
.Pp
To display the same modification time in a readable and sortable format:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] stat -f %Sm -t %Y%m%d%H%M%S /tmp/foo
20070427111533
.Ed
.Pp
To display the same in UTC:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\*[Gt] sh
$ TZ= stat -f %Sm -t %Y%m%d%H%M%S /tmp/foo
20070427181533
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr file 1 ,
.Xr ls 1 ,
.Xr lstat 2 ,
.Xr readlink 2 ,
.Xr stat 2 ,
.Xr printf 3 ,
.Xr strftime 3
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility appeared in
.Nx 1.6
and
.Fx 4.10 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The
.Nm
utility was written by
.An Andrew Brown Aq Mt atatat@NetBSD.org .
This man page was written by
.An Jan Schaumann Aq Mt jschauma@NetBSD.org .