Updated: 3 November 2026 · Applies to: Linux, GNU coreutils stat
stat shows detailed status information for a file, directory or filesystem: size, permissions, ownership, inode number, and the access, modification and change times, in both human readable and machine readable form.
1. Check a single file's status
Give stat a file as its only argument for the default, human readable report:
stat /etc/hosts
File: /etc/hosts Size: 198 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file Device: 0,24 Inode: 163747 Links: 1 Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root) Access: 2026-11-03 08:54:13.469545049 +0000 Modify: 2026-11-03 08:54:13.530545184 +0000 Change: 2026-11-03 08:54:13.530545184 +0000 Birth: 2026-11-03 08:54:13.469545049 +0000
Access, Modify and Change are three different things: Access is when the file was last read, Modify is when its contents last changed, and Change is when its metadata, such as permissions or ownership, last changed. Birth is when the file was created, where the filesystem and kernel support it.
2. Check the filesystem instead of the file
Add -f to report on the filesystem the path lives on, instead of the file itself:
stat -f /etc/hosts
File: "/etc/hosts"
ID: 9d14e4261d6d0f60 Namelen: 255 Type: tmpfs
Block size: 4096 Fundamental block size: 4096
Blocks: Total: 195526 Free: 177313 Available: 177313
Inodes: Total: 819200 Free: 818352
Any path on that filesystem works the same way, including the root directory:
stat -f /
3. Follow symbolic links
By default stat reports on the symbolic link itself, not the file it points to. Add -L to follow the link and report on its target instead:
stat -L /etc/localtime
4. Print a custom format
The --printf option lets you print only the fields you want, using % codes, with no trailing newline unless you add \n yourself. For a file, common codes are %U for the owner's user name, %G for the owner's group name, and %z for the last status change time:
stat --printf="%U\n%G\n%z\n" /etc/hosts
root root 2026-11-03 08:54:23.017566360 +0000
For a filesystem instead of a file, add -f alongside --printf and use the filesystem's own codes, such as %a for free blocks available to a normal user and %b for total data blocks:
stat -f --printf="%n\n%a\n%b\n" /
/ 3707184 12577381
The same letter means something different depending on whether you add -f, so always check man stat for the list that applies to the mode you are using.
5. Print output in terse, one line form
For scripting, -t prints every field on one line, space separated, instead of the formatted report:
stat -t /etc/hosts
/etc/hosts 201 8 81a4 0 0 18 163794 1 0 0 1793696062 1793696063 1793696063 1793696062 4096
Your shell may provide its own, slightly different version of stat; check its documentation if any command here behaves differently. For the full list of accepted format codes, see the manual page:
man stat
