Linux find file timestamp. I have file ABC which I is being renamed to ABC.

Linux find file timestamp Most Linux log formats include hours, minutes Jan 8, 2014 · Yeah I know generally we pretty much always want to find older files but there are some use cases where finding newer files than a certain date time is a requirement. What are the differences between timestamp, modification time, and created time of a file? How Aug 4, 2017 · I basically want to combine the output of find / with the output of: find / | xargs -L1 stat -c%Z The first command lists the files in the / directory and the second lists the timestamp of each f find(1): -newerXY reference Compares the timestamp of the current file with reference. Oct 9, 2014 · Via terminal, I am trying to use find to locate the files between 2011-01-01 and 2011-12-31, but no avail. Enhance your skills in handling date and time data, making your workflows more efficient. ls -lh a. The access timestamp is the last time a file was read. Apr 29, 2009 · On my Fedora 10 system, with findutils-4. Jun 25, 2019 · I have to find a file from a given string inside and list this files timestamp only using find and xargs commands in linux command terminal I've tried this code and it worked out but it gives erro Jul 17, 2023 · Find out how to identify when a file was created in Linux, as well as what Linux is and how to create the files. Apr 8, 2015 · sort --stable --reverse --key=1,2 freeswitch. a The I want to find out the creation date of a particular file on a Linux system. " Aug 20, 2013 · I use AIX via telnet here at work, and I'd like to know how to find files in a specific folder between a date range. To list files ordered by the last access time (atime) instead, use the -u flag: For example: Here we can see file1. If you need to print the file's name and modification time in the standard "C" format, you can use -printf "%c %p\n". So then I tried this: ls -tr1 | sed '1,/timestamp-file/d' to generate the same list. Linux stores the timestamp in the Unix epoch instead of the actual date and time. I'd like to create a Oct 27, 2015 · I want to find files newer than 15 seconds but older than 2 seconds. *"` NOW=$ (date +% Sep 13, 2011 · Next best thing - To find the most recently edited file in a directory, recursively find the most recently edited file in each level 1 subdirectory. What each of these options does: The --reverse option tells sort to sort lines with greater values (later dates) higher, rather than lower. find . Not the modification date or access date, the creation date. fc10. Jan 18, 2024 · One can get various type of timestamps in Bash. Apr 22, 2022 · Linux: find files created/modified after, before and between a timestamp in Linux modification timestamp is the creation timestamp if file has not been modified since creation, Linux find command … Recent GNU versions of find also include a -printf option which includes date fields. In bash, is there a command line to list all the files in a directory based on a timestamp. Sorting the files on the basis of date helps in this case, but that's the traditional way of doing the task and is not efficient. Convert Unix timestamps to human-readable time (and back). Whether you need to find the most recently modified files, track changes over time, or organize your file system, the ability to sort files based on their creation, modification, or access dates can significantly enhance your productivity. Dec 29, 2017 · Given the linux and bash tags, as well as the "linux bash" specification in the question, here's a bash-specific function that will output both the filename and the timestamp of the most-recently modified file in a given directory structure: Dec 31, 2015 · How do I use the UNIX command find to search for files created on a specific date? Sep 13, 2011 · Next best thing - To find the most recently edited file in a directory, recursively find the most recently edited file in each level 1 subdirectory. The only way one may alter the order is via the -depth predicate that tells find to process/output leaves before the branch they're on. We can check the modified time by running ls with the -l option: Sep 12, 2022 · File creation time is a timestamp that is set when a file is first created. We can achieve the same functionality and use it for various utility purposes, using multiple methods. Dec 21, 2015 · I have the following folder setup for example A/file1. Let's say timestamp be date +%d-%m-%y_%H. Note that if Nov 11, 2020 · This tutorial explains the types of Linux file timestamps and how to view and change a file's timestamps using touch command with examples. txt will take me forever. I'm so far able to print out all the files in a directory, but I need to print out the dates with it. Most Linux log formats include hours, minutes Nov 14, 2025 · In the vast landscape of Linux systems, the ability to search for files efficiently is a crucial skill. Deleting files in Linux is an essential skill for all users, whether beginner or experienced. In the above example, if there is no line with timestamp 2012-03-06 11:34:48, then nothing will print out. txt, even though file2. Method 1: Using -mtime (modification time) attribute of find command It is a modified timestamp it 1 You could create a temporary file with the timestamp of your search, and then use the sorting option of ls: the files you are looking for would be before (or after) the temporary file. -mtime -60 -exec cp {} /tmp/1 \\; I can copy these files to a new Feb 12, 2013 · I'm using Bash on Debian GNU/Linux 6. Jul 30, 2009 · A file timestamp change does not really imply you successfully copied. Using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. d. It would also be nice if it can produce output in a tree-like format as produced Grep by Timestamp: How to Find Files by Date and Time By Tony Becker How To Guides Grep Order by Timestamp: A Powerful Tool for Sorting and Searching Text Files Grep is a powerful command-line utility that can be used to search for text within files. Again, -ltr will reverse the sort order. txt B/file3. The limitation is we aren't pinpointing by time, just whole days. Changing file timestamps to a specific date and time If you have a specific time and date you would like to be used for all the timestamps of a file or directory, touch command will gladly accempt a timestamp template with -t command line option. Feb 15, 2018 · How to find files that were created or modified based on a particular timestamp. Some find implementations reorder them by inode number or other criteria in an attempt to improve performance. 4. I've tried some things using find, xargs, sort and the like, but I can't get around the problem that the filesystem timestamp of 'alfa' doesn't change when I create/modify files a few levels down. Use globbing (shell wildcards) or find when you want to select files by name or metadata (e. It tells when was the last time the file was modified. Subdirectories can be omitted. , -name, -mmin. -mtime -2 will find files modified within the last two days. . Is it possible to get the file creation date/time? Not the modification date/time. find has no options that look at the true creation date of the file. e. Dec 26, 2023 · That will find lines between February 1-28 and March 1. This is the date and time that a file listing shows, for example. Besides, as Mateen Ulhaq points out, ls -lac does not display the same dates that ls -la does. Nov 9, 2011 · How to have Linux ls command show second in time stamp Ask Question Asked 14 years ago Modified 2 years, 7 months ago Well, I'm a linux newbie, and I'm having an issue with a simple bash script. It can be the order they appear in the directory. timestamp. Over time that log file gets huge. As an alternative to find, you could use Apr 6, 2011 · and I modify the contents of the file example. txt both only give the modification time. These parameters can be the filename, size, type of file, date created or modified, etc. It’s a staple of any Linux user’s toolkit, and it’s also available for Windows and macOS. Mar 27, 2019 · I need logs only from 09:36 to 09:39 in server logs where the timestamp is 2019-03-19T09:37:19 like this. Oct 18, 2019 · I am trying to prefix timestamp and add an extension to files using a script. i386: find <path> -daystart -ctime 0 -print The -daystart flag tells it to calculate from the start of today instead of from 24 hours ago. So, isn't the return (with success exit code Jan 4, 2009 · run the test find -newer timestamp-file -type f > list-of-files rm -f timestamp-file Turns out the granularity of find -newer is poor, so what typically happens is that some files which were generated by the test program show up as OLDER than the timestamp file. I just know that ls -t and ls -f give different sorting of files and subdirectories under a directory. Epoch and unix timestamp converter for developers. I know I need to attach a date format Aug 17, 2024 · This tutorial explains how to use Bash to find files in a directory newer than a specific date or time, including examples. ) The sort command (as you might expect) outputs each line of the named files (or STDIN) in sorted order. Learn how to leverage these timestamps for efficient file management and time-based file searching. The `find` command is a powerful utility that allows users to locate files and directories based on various criteria such as name, size, modification time, and more. By understanding how Linux captures and utilizes file timestamps, users can efficiently track, search, and manage files with precision. jpg' -not -newermt '. -amin 15 will find files accessed exactly 15 minutes ago, while: find . Learn how to format timestamps for various needs, use them in Git hooks, and enhance your scripting capabilities. 2 I want to use find but sort the results reverse chronologically as with ls -ltr. File splitting (or ls output splitting) is discussed in Linux file spliting. I've got a program that adds to a log file while it's running. For example: I want to find all files in folder X that were created between 01-A Mar 18, 2024 · In Linux, we can usually display a file’s modified date or timestamp by listing its parent directory. Date and time function syntax reference for various programming languages. Let this file represent the subdirectory. My interests are Python, Ruby and Haskell, but other approac Ultimately, I need to take the time stamp that I extract from the above command, and echo it as the first line into the file. In this tutorial, we’ll look at how to display the modified date of files on the output of the find command. Mar 13, 2021 · For example: find . I need Unix timestamps to solve my last question. Jul 27, 2018 · ls -l displays date and time for dates that are in the past six months, and date and year for other dates. 0000000 Jul 24, 2023 · In this article, you should be able to comfortably determine the accessed time, changed time, modification time, and age of any file on our Linux system. date). -mtime -90 -ls How can I copy the From measuring code performance, to analyzing log files, to scheduling cron jobs, UNIX timestamps power many core functions of Linux systems. How do I find my pdf or text files? You need to use the find command. Each file has three time stamps, which record the last time that certain operations were performed on the file: [a] access (read the file’s contents) – atime [b] change the status (modify the file Mar 30, 2024 · Here are a few ways to get the mtime of a file in Linux. It runs fairly quickly; ~400ms on my In bash, is there a command line to list all the files in a directory based on a timestamp. Instantly convert epoch time, understand timezones, and explore timestamp tools with our free dev-friendly toolkit. I need to find out which file has the newest date using the timestamp on the filename not the system timestamp and store the filename in a variable and move it to another directory and move the rest to a different directory. This tutorial guides you through the practical techniques to check file timestamps in Linux. Jul 3, 2010 · I do not remember where I saved pdf and text files under Linux. Sometimes, it might be handy or more efficient to display this information while searching for files. Jul 24, 2023 · In this article, we will learn how to use the '-newerXY' argument of command find to search for files based on the timestamp in Linux. Dec 6, 2016 · In this article, we will explain two important Linux tricks that used to only find recent files or today’s modified files with the help of ls and find commands. However, you can use file access and modification time and date to find out file by date. log (For non-didactic purposes, this can be shortened to -srk1,2. Among the file properties, the creation and modification time of a file are the most commonly used ones. Command: Jan 23, 2020 · Some of them have mentioned about creating for all users but no one mentioned about creating/explaining any file name in /etc/profile. txt, touch file2. Compares the timestamp of the current file with reference. txt and stat -c %y a. Sep 19, 2024 · Linux, an advanced and open-source operating system, has several file-management commands and utilities. Bash scripts have the ability to generate timestamps in several forms for logging, file management, and data processing activities by utilizing formatting options and command Nov 9, 2018 · 0 there is process which creates files in every half and hour. Nov 26, 2024 · Linux and UNIX like operating systems do not store file creation time. This blog post Jul 30, 2009 · Related question is "Datetime To Unix timestamp", but this question is more general. txt B/file2. If you land up corrupting the file or the file-system runs out of space, you will probably still see a timestamp change (need to confirm that). Something like this: 10:30 Dec 10 2010 /tmp/mydir/myfile I've tried with: find . In the Linux system, the system provides a file with three timestamps, namely access timestamp (atime), change timestamp (mtime), and change timestamp (ctime). This article is all about searching such files using the find command. txt was modified more recently. The file list could also be generate by your build system if find is too Jul 23, 2025 · We often need to access various file properties for different purposes. Let us see how to find file by date on Linux. 0-1. Understand the use of UNIX/Linux commands and Git functionalities to manage timestamps effectively. How can I find files between two dates? If relevant, the end goal will be a batch that will move each file found, matching the date interval, to a folder. I'd like to create a Feb 22, 2022 · Learn how to check file modification time on Linux using 'stat', 'ls', 'date', and 'find' commands efficiently. One common requirement is to locate files that are older than a certain period. For example, one can list all files that have been modified on a specific date. But for many needs, having the exact timestamp isn't necessary and this gets the job done quicker. txt I need to recursively list them with file size, modification time and sorted by modification Jul 30, 2009 · A file timestamp change does not really imply you successfully copied. This article talks about two different timestamp and their usage in Bash scripting. No one has mentioned about using it with non-root users. Why are they useful? ls lists files, but it doesn't offer much to select what files to list or the output format. Thus, it's not possible to determine the date a file was created. Nov 27, 2009 · On Unix, is there a command to display a file's modification time, precise to the second? On Linux this is easily done with a "stat -c %y", which returns something like 2009-11-27 11:36:06. %M Could you suggest a command which fetches files based on a particula Aug 15, 2025 · In this comprehensive guide, we will embark on a detailed exploration of how to effectively use the find command with the -newerXY argument to precisely locate files based on their timestamps. -mtime -60 I get the list of files modified within the last 60 days. Redirecting to /@linuxrootroom/creating-timestamps-with-the-ts-command-in-linux-4e5e49f78278 Dec 6, 2016 · In this article, we will explain two important Linux tricks that used to only find recent files or today’s modified files with the help of ls and find commands. 2. The easiest way to specify a date range with find is to create files at the boundaries of the range and use the -newer predicate. I do not get the exact context of your requirement. txt DIRECTORY=`find /path/to/file -type f ! -name "*. When I execute the command find . Mar 6, 2012 · The problem with this approach is that there has to be a line in the log file with that timestamp. Understanding these timestamps is essential for system administrators, developers, and regular users who need to monitor file activities. Is this possible through any combo of flags or pipelines? find "path to which you want to apply search" -type f ! -newer /tmp/olddate -delete -----> this deletes files from the path where you want with reference to the file created at the certain date. The Mar 11, 2025 · Learn how to get, parse, and convert dates and times on Linux with this comprehensive guide. May 15, 2021 · In short, when dealing with files and directories under a Linux operating system environment, we can build an events timeline to identify vulnerable file modifications through timestamps attached to each modification. You Mar 18, 2024 · A quick and practical guide to copying files based on their modification date. I have tried with ls -ltrh and stat filename but neither gi What's the best cross-platform way to get file creation and modification dates/times, that works on both Linux and Windows? Linux find files relative to a date What date are we talking about ? There is 3 timestamps that are recorded by the filesystem for each file and folder: mtime (m odification time): last time the file content changed atime (a ccess time): last time the file was accessed ctime (c hange time): last time the file changed; take into account modifications on file content and metadata, like file Feb 7, 2013 · I want to list all files (sorted by date) that are newer than timestamp in format 20130207003851 in directory /tmp only. I actually found a good answer from another closely related question. If you want the date in a specific format, you can use the %C followed by a field character. I want to create the variable at the beginning of the script and have it print out the current time How do I compare the timestamp of two files? I tried this but it doesn't work: Apr 23, 2024 · Conclusion: One simple and efficient way to capture and handle date and time information in Bash scripting is to use the date command to create timestamp variables. NN/file100. So when I execute find . I know I need to attach a date format Oct 6, 2019 · In a Unix Shell you can use the following to print a list of all files and subfolders recursively: cd some/path/to/folder du -a and you can list file information (such as permissions and timestamps) May 6, 2013 · I can't seem to find how to print out the date of a file. ctime can be in the past six months just as much as mtime (modification date) can, so ls -lac can display times (instead of years) just as much as ls -la can. Explore file timestamps in Linux, including access time, modification time, and change time. sort -n sorts the timestamps numerically. If you fire a cp, it completes and returns -- does not return while it is working. But when I'm running this command its removing file older than seven days from current timestamp of running instant, But I don't want to remove by timestamp I just want to remove all files created on or before that day. Oct 10, 2011 · I'm looking for a single command to list all files recursively from a given directory along with its modified time. For example, if you need find files newer than '1 June 2018 11:02', you can create a file with this creation date. Jun 12, 2013 · I am trying to create a timestamp variable in a shell script to make the logging a little easier. g. I have this command as an example that seems to correctly add a new line at the top of the file: I want to recursively list all files in a given directory, with their full path and their timestamps. -type f -exe Google tells me "The standard ext4 Linux file system also allocates space for a file-creation timestamp in its internal file system structures, but this hasn’t been implemented yet. sh looks very close to technical (so it creates confusion) so I used the name existing-foo-file. Here is the script I'm currently using that grabs files newer than 15 seconds: find /my/directory -name '*. This answer is wrong. The `find` command in Linux is a powerful tool that can be Most Unix/Linux operating systems know 3 different meta informations for a file or a folder: atime, mtime and ctime. Learn easy methods to get the exact timestamp you need for your projects. This can be useful for various purposes, such as disk space management, archiving old data, or auditing. Jul 17, 2023 · Learn to decipher Linux file timestamps! This guide delves into atime, mtime, and ctime, enabling you to manage your files with more precision. You need to use the ls command and find command. Typing touch file1. Aug 15, 2025 · Find Unix timestamps in Linux for any date/time with our guide. tail -1 only keeps the last/highest timestamp. This is useful if you need to know when a file was created for troubleshooting purposes or just to have some information about your files. I have file ABC which I is being renamed to ABC. This timestamp can be used to track the age of the file. I have downloaded files from the Internet a few months ago. 0. -newer start \! -newer stop Introduction In the Linux operating system, every file has associated timestamps that track when the file was modified, accessed, or had its attributes changed. Introduction This comprehensive tutorial explores the intricate world of Linux file timestamps, providing developers and system administrators with in-depth knowledge about file metadata tracking, search techniques, and timestamp management. Discover practical applications for file timestamp modification. Oct 6, 2019 · In a Unix Shell you can use the following to print a list of all files and subfolders recursively: cd some/path/to/folder du -a and you can list file information (such as permissions and timestamps) May 6, 2013 · I can't seem to find how to print out the date of a file. The other common way to get this information is by using the stat command. Mar 18, 2024 · The modified timestamp contains the time the file’s data has been changed. Mar 11, 2025 · This article covers how to get timestamps in Bash scripts, focusing on methods to create timestamp variables using the date command and Git commands. You can use functions from the time module and datetime module to get the file creation and modification of date or Aug 20, 2012 · Display time stamp in dd/mm/yyyy_hh:mm:ss:ms in Unix or Linux Ask Question Asked 13 years, 3 months ago Modified 5 years, 8 months ago Feb 1, 2015 · I need to change the timestamp of about 5000 files. The modification time will commonly be the default timestamp used in file managers and shell comments like ls. Jun 10, 2011 · How do I list directories by their access time in the sense that some new files/directories are created (say, directories containing the most recently created files). For example: I want to find all files in folder X that were created between 01-A Google tells me "The standard ext4 Linux file system also allocates space for a file-creation timestamp in its internal file system structures, but this hasn’t been implemented yet. touch -t 201112220000 start touch -t 201112240000 stop find . In this article, we will learn how to delete all files before a certain date in Linux. txt . Feb 25, 2014 · To find 'pattern' in all files newer than some_file in the current directory and its sub-directories recursively: find -newer some_file -type f -exec grep 'pattern' {} + You could specify the timestamp directly in date -d format and use other find tests e. Apr 11, 2008 · What are atime, ctime and mtime? As you know, Unix filesystems store a number of timestamps for each file. Linux Keeps Track of Every File Three Times The most commonly referenced file timestamp is mtime. It means when we make changes to the actual contents of the file, the file system will update the modification time. The reference argument is normally the name of a file (and one of its timestamps is used for the comparison) but it may also be a string describing an absolute time. Feb 17, 2023 · Table of Contents What is the Find Command in Linux? Finding Files by Their Timestamp The Find Command Syntax Find Options Used in This Article The Difference Between - [a,c,m]time and – [a,c,m]min Options Searching for Files Accessed, Changed or Modified *Exactly* n Time Ago Searching for Files Accessed, Changed or Modified *Less* Than n Time Ago Searching for files accessed, changed or Aug 30, 2018 · Learn what are the various kinds of file timestamps in Linux, how to see the timestamps for a file and how to change the timestamps. Files that are created and used on Linux systems have three different timestamps available: access time (atime), modify time (mtime) and change time (ctime). It runs fairly quickly; ~400ms on my May 30, 2017 · The order of files reported by find is opaque to the user. It's assumed, based on other answers Jul 13, 2023 · Here, we will unveil the real strength of Linux by examining a set of commands which can help in finding and sorting or even a list of files by Date and Time. Whether you're a system administrator looking for specific configuration files or a developer searching for source code files Jan 8, 2014 · Yeah I know generally we pretty much always want to find older files but there are some use cases where finding newer files than a certain date time is a requirement. I want to remove files older than 7 days. Nov 14, 2025 · In the Linux operating system, being able to list files by date is a crucial skill for system administrators, developers, and power users. I want to copy the last three months' files from one directory to another directory, but I could find only listing the files by using the following command. Search for Precise Timestamp Matches If you do need to isolate logs by the exact timestamp, grep has you covered there as well. Note however that this will actually list files created or modified in the last day. Can anyone suggest me grep command for this Mar 9, 2011 · $ find srch_dir -amin -60 # access time shows files whose metadata has been changed (ctime), the file contents itself have been modified (mtime), or accessed (atime) in the last hour, respectively. Found. atime: access time: means when the file/folder was last accessed. Nov 14, 2025 · In the Linux operating system, the ability to manage and search for files efficiently is crucial for system administrators, developers, and power users. Feb 14, 2024 · Every Linux file has three timestamps: the access timestamp (atime), the modified timestamp (mtime), and the changed timestamp (ctime). txt, I need that time displayed next to the first-level directory alfa in human readable form, not epoch. sh (foo-bar concept). ctime is non-unintuitive and warrants further explanation: ctime: Unlike mtime, which is only related to the contents inside a file, changed timestamp indicates the last time some metadata of a file Dec 16, 2014 · Generally speaking, when you're looking for files in a directory and its subdirectories recursively, use find. Just to point out, Linux files don't have birth dates. Discover practical examples and explanations to streamline your workflow and improve productivity. For example, 4-digit year would be %CY, with Y being the character for 4-digit year. Now that you understand the timestamp basics covered in this 2500+ word guide, you can leverage them in your own Linux work! Let me know if you have any other questions. Apr 28, 2021 · Sometimes, we want to find the files which we created or modified in the last N number of days. As an advantage, you will know whether the modification was associated with malicious content through the generated system logs. -type f -printf '%T@\n' | sort -n | tail -1 %T@ returns the modification time as a unix timestamp, which is just what I need. Sometimes, this timestamp is populated, but you can’t depend on the values in it. I've only modified the command a little to adapt it to my needs: find . Is there a way to do something in the lines of touch -R *? Learn how to understand and update file timestamps, including access time, modification time, and change time, using the touch command in Linux. txt was more recently accessed than file2. The find command in Linux is used to search for files and folders based on different parameters. In Linux, there are a few different ways to check the file creation time. X and Y are placeholders for other letters, and these letters select which time belonging to how reference is used for the comparison. , Aug 29, 2018 · find + print the files with time stamp Ask Question Asked 7 years, 2 months ago Modified 5 years, 6 months ago May 13, 2017 · You can recursively find files newer than a given timestamp using touch -d and find /dir -newer commands. rinrzv skwsb lldf akaip clad ifiq gfu kuzdx qoid asz txf toddc vkw nfnm yhhritz