stat Command in Linux: Display File and Filesystem Information

stat is a command-line utility that displays detailed information about given files or file systems.

This article explains how to use the stat command.

stat Command Syntax #

The syntax for the stat command is as follows:

stat [OPTION]... FILE...

stat accepts one or more input FILE names and includes a number of options that control the command behavior and output.

Displaying File Information #

Here is an example of running stat on a regular file:

stat file.txt

The output will look something like this:

  File: file.txt
  Size: 4030      	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 801h/2049d	Inode: 13633379    Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: ( 1000/   linuxize)   Gid: ( 1000/   linuxize)
Access: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.991979701 +0100
Modify: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.971979713 +0100
Change: 2019-11-06 09:52:17.971979713 +0100
 Birth: -

When invoked without any options, stat displays the following file information:

• File — The name of the file.
• Size — The size of the file in bytes.
• Blocks — The number of allocated blocks the file takes.
• IO Block — The size in bytes of every block.
• File type — For example: regular file, directory, or symbolic link.
• Device — Device number in hex and decimal.
• Inode — Inode number.
• Links — Number of hard links.
• Access — File permissions in numeric and symbolic form.
• Uid — User ID and name of the owner .
• Gid — Group ID and name of the owning group.
• Context — The SELinux security context (shown only on SELinux-enabled systems).
• Access — The last time the file was accessed.
• Modify — The last time the file’s content was modified.
• Change — The last time the file’s attributes or content changed.
• Birth — File creation time. Supported on Linux kernel 4.11 and later on filesystems that record it (ext4, btrfs, xfs). Shows - when the filesystem does not store birth time.

To learn more about file timestamps and how to update them, see the touch command guide .

Displaying Filesystem Information #

To get information about the filesystem where the given file resides, instead of information about the file itself, use the -f (--file-system) option:

stat -f file.txt

The output of the command will look like this:

  File: "package.json"
    ID: 8eb53097b4494d20 Namelen: 255     Type: ext2/ext3
Block size: 4096       Fundamental block size: 4096
Blocks: Total: 61271111   Free: 25395668   Available: 22265851
Inodes: Total: 15630336   Free: 13979610

When stat is invoked with the -f option, it shows the following information:

• File — The name of the file.
• ID — Filesystem ID in hex.
• Namelen — Maximum length of file names.
• Fundamental block size — The size of each block on the filesystem.
• Blocks:
  • Total — Number of total blocks in the filesystem.
  • Free — Number of free blocks in the filesystem.
  • Available — Number of free blocks available to non-root users.
• Inodes:
  • Total — Number of total inodes in the filesystem.
  • Free — Number of free inodes in the filesystem.

Dereference (Follow) Symlinks #

By default, stat does not follow symlinks . If you run the command on a symlink, the output will include information about the symlink, not the file it points to:

stat /etc/resolv.conf

  File: /etc/resolv.conf -> ../run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf
  Size: 39        	Blocks: 0          IO Block: 4096   symbolic link
Device: 801h/2049d	Inode: 8126659     Links: 1
Access: (0777/lrwxrwxrwx)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2019-11-06 21:12:26.875956073 +0100
Modify: 2018-07-24 11:11:48.128794519 +0200
Change: 2018-07-24 11:11:48.128794519 +0200
 Birth: -

To dereference (follow) the symlink and display information about the file it points to, use the -L (--dereference) option:

stat -L /etc/resolv.conf

  File: /etc/resolv.conf
  Size: 715       	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: 17h/23d	Inode: 989         Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: (  101/systemd-resolve)   Gid: (  103/systemd-resolve)
Access: 2019-11-06 20:35:25.603689619 +0100
Modify: 2019-11-06 20:35:25.555689733 +0100
Change: 2019-11-06 20:35:25.555689733 +0100
 Birth: -

Customizing the Output #

The stat command has two options that allow you to customize the output: -c (--format="format") and --printf="format".

The difference between these two options is that when two or more files are used as operands, --format automatically adds a newline after each file’s output, while --printf interprets backslash escapes.

Here are the most commonly used format directives:

For example, to view only the type of the file, you would run:

stat --format="%F" /dev/null

character special file

You can combine any number of format directives and optionally use custom separators:

stat --format="%n,%F" /dev/null

/dev/null,character special file

To interpret special characters like newline or tab, use the --printf option:

stat --printf='Name: %n\nPermissions: %a\n' /etc

\n prints a new line:

Name: /etc
Permissions: 755

The stat command can also display information in terse form, which is useful for parsing by other utilities. Use the -t (--terse) option:

stat -t /etc

/etc 12288 24 41ed 0 0 801 8126465 147 0 0 1573068933 1573068927 1573068927 0 4096

For a complete list of all format directives, run man stat or stat --help.

Quick Reference #

Troubleshooting #

Birth time shows -
The filesystem does not record creation time, or the kernel is older than 4.11. Birth time is stored on ext4, btrfs, xfs, and tmpfs. Check your filesystem type with df -T /path.

Context field is missing from output
The Context (SELinux) field only appears on SELinux-enabled systems. On standard Ubuntu or Debian systems it will not be shown.

Output fields differ between systems
The exact output depends on the kernel version, filesystem type, and whether SELinux is active. Fields like Birth and Context may not appear on all systems.

FAQ #

What is the difference between stat and ls?
ls shows a summary of file information suitable for listing directories. stat shows the complete low-level metadata for a single file, including inode number, block count, and all three timestamps.

How do I show only the file size with stat?
Use stat --format="%s" filename. This prints the size in bytes. To get a human-readable size, use du -sh instead.

Why does the Birth time show -?
The filesystem does not store creation time. Filesystems such as ext4, btrfs, and xfs do record birth time on Linux kernel 4.11 and later. Older filesystems like ext2/ext3 do not support it.

How do I use stat in a script to get a file’s permissions?
Use stat --format="%a" filename for octal permissions or stat --format="%A" filename for the symbolic form. These are easy to assign to a variable: perms=$(stat --format="%a" file).

What is the difference between Modify time and Change time?
Modify time (mtime) changes when the file’s content is written. Change time (ctime) changes when content or metadata (permissions, ownership, links) changes. See the touch command guide for how to update these timestamps.

Conclusion #

The stat command prints detailed information about given files and file systems. In Linux, several other commands can display file information, with ls being the most used one, but it shows only a subset of the information provided by stat. For filesystem usage summaries, see the df command guide .

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below.

About the authors

Dejan Panovski

Dejan Panovski is the founder of Linuxize, an RHCSA-certified Linux system administrator and DevOps engineer based in Skopje, Macedonia. Author of 800+ Linux tutorials with 20+ years of experience turning complex Linux tasks into clear, reliable guides.

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