OS Manuals

/usr/bin/stat

Cross-platform Rust rewrite of the GNU coreutils.

From uutils 0.12.0-r6 (os), captured 2026-11-07 by running stat --help (exit 0). permalink

Display file or file system status.

Usage: stat [OPTION]... FILE...

Arguments:
  <files>...

Options:
  -L, --dereference      follow links
  -f, --file-system      display file system status instead of file status
  -t, --terse            print the information in terse form
  -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
  -h, --help             Print help
  -V, --version          Print version

Valid format sequences for files (without `--file-system`):

  -`%a`: access rights in octal (note '#' and '0' printf flags)
  -`%A`: access rights 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
  -`%D`: device number in hex
  -`%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 (follow) if symbolic link
  -`%o`: optimal I/O transfer size hint
  -`%s`: total size, in bytes
  -`%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

NOTE: 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.
Options (7)
OptionDescriptionSource
-L, --dereferencefollow linkshelp + man
-f, --file-systemdisplay file system status instead of file statushelp + man
-t, --terseprint the information in terse formhelp + man
-c, --format FORMATuse the specified FORMAT instead of the default;help + man
--printf FORMATlike --format, but interpret backslash escapes, and do not output a mandatory trailing newline;help + man
-h, --helpPrint helphelp + man
-V, --versionPrint versionhelp + man

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.