STAT(1)

NAME
stat - display file or file system status

SYNOPSIS
stat [OPTION]... FILE...

DESCRIPTION

Display file or file system status.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-L, --dereference
    follow links

-f, --file-system
    display file system status instead of file status

--cached=MODE
    specify how to use cached attributes; useful on remote file systems. See MODE below

-c, --format=FORMAT
    use the specified FORMAT instead of the default; output a newline after each use of FORMAT

--printf=FORMAT
    like --format, but interpret backslash escapes, and do not output a mandatory trailing newline; if you want a newline, include \n in FORMAT

-t, --terse
    print the information in terse form

--help
    display this help and exit

--version
    output version information and exit

The MODE argument of --cached can be: always, never, or default. 'always' will use cached attributes if available, while 'never' will try to synchronize with the latest attributes, and 'default' will leave it up to the underlying file system.

The valid format sequences for files (without --file-system):

%a  permission bits in octal (see '#' and '0' printf flags)

%A  permission bits and file type in human readable form

%b  number of blocks allocated (see %B)

%B  the size in bytes of each block reported by %b

%C  SELinux security context string

%d  device number in decimal (st_dev)

%D  device number in hex (st_dev)

%Hd major device number in decimal

%Ld minor device number in decimal

%f  raw mode in hex

%F  file type

%g  group ID of owner

%G  group name of owner

%h  number of hard links

%i  inode number

%m  mount point

%n  file name

%N  quoted file name with dereference if symbolic link

%o  optimal I/O transfer size hint

%s  total size, in bytes

%r  device type in decimal (st_rdev)

%R  device type in hex (st_rdev)

%Hr major device type in decimal, for character/block device special files

%Lr minor device type in decimal, for character/block device special files

%t  major device type in hex, for character/block device special files

%T  minor device type in hex, for character/block device special files

%u  user ID of owner

%U  user name of owner

%w  time of file birth, human-readable; - if unknown

%W  time of file birth, seconds since Epoch; 0 if unknown

%x  time of last access, human-readable

%X  time of last access, seconds since Epoch

%y  time of last data modification, human-readable

%Y  time of last data modification, seconds since Epoch

%z  time of last status change, human-readable

%Z  time of last status change, seconds since Epoch

Valid format sequences for file systems:

%a  free blocks available to non-superuser

%b  total data blocks in file system

%c  total file nodes in file system

%d  free file nodes in file system

%f  free blocks in file system

%i  file system ID in hex

%l  maximum length of filenames

%n  file name

%s  block size (for faster transfers)

%S  fundamental block size (for block counts)

%t  file system type in hex

%T  file system type in human readable form

  --terse is equivalent to the following FORMAT:

    %n %s %b %f %u %g %D %i %h %t %T %X %Y %Z %W %o

  --terse --file-system is equivalent to the following FORMAT:

    %n %i %l %t %s %S %b %f %a %c %d

Your shell may have its own version of stat, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supports.

AUTHOR
Written by Michael Meskes.

REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
stat(2), statfs(2), statx(2)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/stat>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) stat invocation'