5 ‘stat’ Command Examples for Linux Newbies

The stat command is one of the most useful utilities in Linux for examining detailed file and directory information. It provides comprehensive metadata about files including permissions, timestamps, sizes, and filesystem properties. This article explores five essential stat command examples that every Linux newcomer should know.

Getting Basic File Information

The simplest use of the stat command is to display comprehensive information about a file or directory. Simply use the following syntax

stat filename

For example, to examine a file called example.txt

stat example.txt

This command produces output showing the file's size, permissions, timestamps, inode number, and other metadata in a detailed format.

Sample Output

  File: example.txt
  Size: 1024      	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 801h/2049d	Inode: 123456      Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/   user)   Gid: ( 1000/   user)
Access: 2024-01-15 10:30:00.000000000 +0000
Modify: 2024-01-15 09:45:00.000000000 +0000
Change: 2024-01-15 09:45:00.000000000 +0000
 Birth: -

Finding File Type with Format Specifiers

The stat command supports format specifiers to extract specific information. To determine the file type, use the %F format specifier

stat --format='%F' filename

Example

stat --format='%F' example.txt

regular file

This returns the file type, such as "regular file", "directory", "symbolic link", or "block special file".

Displaying File Permissions

To view file permissions in human-readable format, use the %A format specifier

stat --format='%A' filename

For octal permission format, use %a

stat --format='%a' example.txt

644

The output shows permissions where 644 means owner has read/write (6), group has read (4), and others have read (4) permissions.

File Size and Timestamps

Several format specifiers help extract size and time information

Human-Readable File Size

To display file size in a more readable format, combine stat with numfmt

stat --format='%s' example.txt | numfmt --to=iec

1.0K

Advanced File System Information

The stat command can reveal detailed filesystem metadata

Inode Number

stat --format='%i' example.txt

Number of Hard Links

stat --format='%h' example.txt

File System Block Size

stat --format='%o' example.txt

Device ID

stat --format='%d' example.txt

Practical Examples

Here's a comprehensive example combining multiple format specifiers

stat --format='File: %n%nSize: %s bytes%nPermissions: %A (%a)%nOwner: %U%nGroup: %G%nModified: %y' example.txt

File: example.txt
Size: 1024 bytes
Permissions: -rw-r--r-- (644)
Owner: user
Group: user
Modified: 2024-01-15 09:45:00.000000000 +0000

Conclusion

The stat command is an essential tool for Linux file system management, providing detailed metadata about files and directories. By mastering these format specifiers and examples, Linux users can efficiently gather file information for system administration, troubleshooting, and automation tasks.