STAT(1) | General Commands Manual | STAT(1)

# NAME

`stat` — display file status

# SYNOPSIS

`stat` | [`-FLnq`] [`-f` format | `-l` | `-r` | `-s` | `-x`] [`-t` timefmt] [file ...]

# DESCRIPTION

The `stat` utility displays information about each file given by file. Read, write, or execute permissions for the named file are not required, but all directories listed in the pathname leading to the file must be searchable.

If no file argument is given, `stat` displays information about the file descriptor for standard input. In this case the `-L` option is ignored, and `stat` uses fstat(2) rather than lstat(2) or stat(2) to obtain information. The ‘file name’ (and also the ‘path name’) in this case is ‘`(stdin)`’. The file number (‘`%@`’) will be zero.

Otherwise the information displayed is obtained by calling lstat(2) (or stat(2) with `-L`) with each given argument in turn and evaluating the returned structure.

The default format displays the st_dev, st_ino, st_mode, st_nlink, st_uid, st_gid, st_rdev, st_size, st_atime, st_mtime, st_ctime, st_birthtime, st_blksize, st_blocks, and st_flags fields, in that order.

The options are as follows:

`-F`
  As in ls(1), display a slash (‘`/`’) immediately after each pathname that is a directory, an asterisk (‘`*`’) after each that is executable, an at sign (‘`@`’) after each symbolic link, a percent sign (‘`%`’) after each whiteout, an equal sign (‘`=`’) after each socket, and a vertical bar (‘`|`’) after each that is a FIFO. The use of `-F` implies `-l`.
`-f` format
  Display information using the specified format. See the FORMATS section for a description of valid formats.
`-L`
  Use stat(2) instead of lstat(2). The information reported by `stat` will refer to the target of file, if file is a symbolic link, rather than to file itself. If file is not a symbolic link, stat(2) and lstat(2) give the same results, so this option is essentially a no-op in that case. If file is a symbolic link, but the target of that link does not exist, then `stat` will fall back to using lstat(2) and display details of the symbolic link itself. This is the only situation where, when `-L` is used, the resulting data can refer to a symbolic link.
`-l`
  Display output in `ls` `-lT` format.
`-n`
  Do not force a newline to appear at the end of each piece of output.
`-q`
  Suppress failure messages if calls to fstat(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), realpath(3), or stat(2) fail.
`-r`
  Display raw information. That is, for all the fields in the stat-structure, display the raw, numerical value (for example, times in seconds since the epoch, etc.)
`-s`
  Display information in “shell command” output format, suitable for initializing variables. This is equivalent to specifying

      FMT="st_dev=%d st_ino=%i st_mode=%#p st_nlink=%l"
      FMT="$FMT st_uid=%u st_gid=%g st_rdev=%r st_size=%z"
      FMT="$FMT st_atime=%Sa st_mtime=%Sm st_ctime=%Sc"
      FMT="$FMT st_birthtime=%SB st_blksize=%k st_blocks=%b"
      FMT="$FMT st_flags=%f"
      stat -t %s -f "$FMT" .

  The timefmt may be altered from the default for `-s` (‘`%s`’) by also using the `-t` option. Note that if you use a timefmt that contains embedded whitespace or shell meta-characters, you will need to include appropriate quoting in the `-t` format, or supply an explicit format (`-f`), rather than `-s`, with the format containing appropriate quoting so the output remains valid.

`-t` timefmt
  Display timestamps, when to be output in string format, using the specified format. This format is passed directly to strftime(3) with the extension that ‘`%f`’ prints nanoseconds if available.
`-x`
  Display information in a more verbose way as seen from some Linux distributions.

## FORMATS

Format strings are similar to printf(3) formats in that they contain character data, which is simply output, interspersed with data conversions which start with `%`, are then followed by a sequence of formatting characters, and end in a character that selects the datum, the field of the struct stat, or other data, which is to be formatted. If the `%` is immediately followed by one of `n`, `t`, `%`, or `@`, then a newline character, a tab character, a percent character, or the current file number in the argument list is printed. Otherwise the string is examined for the following:

Any of the following optional flags in any order:

`#`
  Selects an alternate output form for string, octal and hexadecimal output. String output will be encoded in vis(3) style. Octal output will have a leading zero. Non-zero hexadecimal output will have ‘`0x`’ prepended to it.
`+`
  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.
`-`
  Aligns string output to the left of the field, instead of to the right.
`0`
  Sets the fill character for left padding to the 0 character, instead of a space.
space
  Reserves a space at the front of non-negative signed output fields. A ‘`+`’ overrides a space if both are used.

Then followed by the following fields in the following order:

size
  An optional decimal digit string specifying the minimum field width. Note that a leading zero is treated as the ‘`0`’ flag (above), subsequent embedded zeroes are part of the size.
prec
  An optional precision composed of a decimal point ‘`.`’ 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 other numeric output.
fmt
  An optional output format specifier which is one of `D`, `O`, `U`, `X`, `F`, or `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 timespec fields (the `a`, `m`, and `c` fields).

  The special output format specifier `S` may be used to indicate that the output, if applicable, should be in string format. May be used in combination with the following field specifiers:

  `a`, `m`, `c`
    Display date in strftime(3) format with the extension that ‘`%f`’ prints nanoseconds if available.
  `d`, `r`
    Display actual device name.
  `f`
    Display the flags of file as in `ls` `-ldo`.
  `g`, `u`
    Display group or user name.
  `p`
    Display the mode of file symbolically, as in `ls -lTd`.
  `N`
    Displays the name of file.
  `T`
    Displays the type of file.
  `R`, `Y`
    Insert a ‘`->` ’ into the output. Note that the default output formats for `Y` and `R` are strings, if `S` is specified explicitly, these four characters are prepended.
sub
  An optional sub field specifier: high, middle, or low. Only applies to the `d`, `N`, `p`, `r`, `T`, and `z` output field specifiers. It can be one of the following:
  `H`
    “High” subfield of datum:
    `d`, `r`
      Major number for devices
    `N`
      Directory path of the file, similar to what dirname(1) would show
    `p`
      “User” bits from the string form of permissions, or the file “type” bits from the numeric forms
    `T`
      The long output form of file type
    `z`
      File size, rounded to the nearest gigabyte
  `M`
    “Middle” subfield of datum:
    `p`
      The “group” bits from the string form of permissions, or the “suid”, “sgid”, and “sticky” bits from the numeric forms
    `z`
      File size, rounded to the nearest megabyte
  `L`
    “Low” subfield of datum:
    `d`, `r`
      Minor number for devices
    `N`
      Base filename of the file, similar to what basename(1) would show
    `p`
      The “other” bits from the string form of permissions, or the “user”, “group”, and “other” bits from the numeric forms
    `T`
      The `ls -F` style output character for file type (the use of `L` here is optional)
    `z`
      File size, rounded to the nearest kilobyte
datum
  A required field specifier, ending the conversion specification, being one of the following:
  `d`
    Device upon which file resides (st_dev).
  `i`
    file's inode number (st_ino).
  `p`
    File type and permissions (st_mode).
  `l`
    Number of hard links to file (st_nlink).
  `u`, `g`
    User-id and group-id of file's owner (st_uid, st_gid).
  `r`
    Device number for character and block device special files (st_rdev).
  `a`, `m`, `c`, `B`
    The time file was last accessed or modified, or when its inode was last changed, or the birth time of the inode (st_atime, st_mtime, st_ctime, st_birthtime).
  `z`
    The size of file in bytes (st_size).
  `b`
    Number of blocks allocated for file (st_blocks).
  `k`
    Optimal file system I/O operation block size (st_blksize).
  `f`
    User defined flags for file (st_flags).
  `v`
    Inode generation number (st_gen).

  The following five field specifiers are not drawn directly from the data in struct stat, but are:

  `N`
    The name of the file.
  `R`
    The absolute pathname corresponding to the file.
  `T`
    The file type, either as in `ls -F` or in a more descriptive form if the sub field specifier `H` is given.
  `Y`
    The target of a symbolic link.
  `Z`
    Expands to “major`,`minor” (that is, ‘`%Hr,%-Lr`’) for character or block special devices, and gives size output (‘`%z`’) for all other file types. A specified field width applies to the overall result (approximately half each for the two device file sub-fields), but precision, output format, and flags are used separately for each conversion made (but note the ‘`-`’ in the ‘`%-Lr`’ conversion.)

Only the ‘`%`’ and the datum (field specifier) are required. Most field specifiers default to `U` as an output format, with the exception of `p` which defaults to `O`; `a`, `m`, and `c` which default to `D`; and `Y`, `T`, `R`, and `N`, which default to `S`.

# EXIT STATUS

The `stat` utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

# EXAMPLES

If no options are specified, the default format is:

    %d %i %Sp %l %Su %Sg %r %z "%Sa" "%Sm" "%Sc" "%SB" %k %b %#Xf %N

Thus:

    > stat /tmp/bar
    0 78852 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel −1 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

This next example produces output very similar to that from `find` ... `-ls`, except that find(1) displays the time in a different format, and find(1) sometimes adds one or more spaces after the comma in “major`,`minor” for device nodes:

    > stat -f "%7i %6b %-11Sp %3l %-17Su %-17Sg %9Z %Sm %N%SY" /tmp/bar
      78852      0 -rw-r--r--    1 root              wheel                     0 Jul  8 10:26:03 2004 /tmp/bar

    > find /tmp/bar -ls -exit
      78852      0 -rw-r--r--    1 root              wheel                     0 Jul  8  2004 /tmp/bar

This example produces output very similar to that from `ls -lTd`, except that ls(1) adjusts the column spacing differently when listing multiple files, and adds at least one space after the comma in “major`,`minor” for device nodes:

    > stat -f "%-11Sp %l %Su  %Sg  %Z %Sm %N%SY" /tmp/bar
    -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  0 Jul  8 10:26:03 2004 /tmp/bar

    > ls -lTd /tmp/bar
    -rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  0 Jul  8 10:26:03 2004 /tmp/bar

Given a symbolic link /tmp/foo that points to /, you would use `stat` as follows:

    > stat -F /tmp/foo
    lrwxrwxrwx 1 jschauma cs 1 Apr 24 16:37:28 2002 /tmp/foo@ -> /

    > stat -LF /tmp/foo
    drwxr-xr-x 16 root wheel 512 Apr 19 10:57:54 2002 /tmp/foo/

To initialize some shell variables, you could use the `-s` flag as follows:

    > csh
    % eval set `stat -s .cshrc`
    % echo $st_size $st_mtime
    1148 1015432481

    > sh
    $ eval $(stat -s .profile)
    $ echo $st_size $st_mtime
    1148 1015432481

In order to get a list of the kind of files including files pointed to if the file is a symbolic link, you could use the following format:

    $ stat -f "%N: %HT%SY" /tmp/*
    /tmp/bar: Symbolic Link -> /tmp/foo
    /tmp/output25568: Regular File
    /tmp/blah: Directory
    /tmp/foo: Symbolic Link -> /

In order to get a list of the devices, their types and the major and minor device numbers, formatted with tabs and line breaks, you could use the following format:

    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

In order to determine the permissions set on a file separately, you could use the following format:

    > stat -f "%Sp -> owner=%SHp group=%SMp other=%SLp" .
    drwxr-xr-x -> owner=rwx group=r-x other=r-x

In order to determine the three files that have been modified most recently, you could use the following format:

    > 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

User names, group names, and file names that contain spaces or other special characters may be encoded in vis(3) style, using the ‘`#`’ flag:

    > ln -s 'target with spaces' 'link with spaces'
    > stat -f "%#N%#SY" 'link with spaces'
    link\swith\sspaces -> target\swith\sspaces

# SEE ALSO

basename(1), dirname(1), find(1), ls(1), readlink(1), fstat(2), lstat(2), readlink(2), stat(2), printf(3), realpath(3), strftime(3)

# HISTORY

The `stat` utility appeared in NetBSD 1.6.

# AUTHORS

The `stat` utility was written by Andrew Brown ⟨atatat@NetBSD.org⟩. This man page was written by Jan Schaumann ⟨jschauma@NetBSD.org⟩.

May 3, 2025 | NetBSD 11.99