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File and Directory Information with stat Command

Learn how to use the stat command to retrieve detailed information about files and directories. Explore options to display folder, user, group, and octal permissions, as well as inode number, number of hard links, file type, total size, access/modification/change times, I/O block size, and number of allocated blocks. Optimize your file and directory management with these powerful stat command usages.

Print folder, user, group and octal permissions of all files in ~/

stat -c '%n %U %G %n %a' $HOME

Print permissions in octal 

stat -c %a %n $HOME

Simulate Dolphin explorers default setup

stat -c '%n %s %U %G %a %z' $HOME/* \
	|awk '//{printf "%10s %100s %10s %10s %10s %10s\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6 }' \
	|column -t -N Path,Size,User,Group,Perm,Modified \
	|sed "1,2 i $(printf %85s\
	|tr ' ' '=')"

Print the inode number

stat -c %i $HOME

Print the number of hard links

stat -c %h $HOME

Print the file type

stat -c %F $HOME

Print the file's total size in bytes

stat -c %s $HOME

Print the time of last access

stat -c %x $HOME

Print the time of last modification

stat -c %y $HOME

Print the time of last change

stat -c %z $HOME

Print the I/O block size

stat -c %o $HOME

Print the number of blocks allocated

stat -c %b $HOME