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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers How do you get the last modification date of a file? Post 302764015 by Nate18 on Wednesday 30th of January 2013 10:16:23 PM
Old 01-30-2013
How do you get the last modification date of a file?

I'm trying to get the date output to be in the form yyyy-mm-dd (e.g. 2013-01-18)
Code:
!/bin/sh
modDate=$(stat -c %y $1)
echo $modDate >> $1

When I run this on another file (by typing ./dateScript theFile.txt), I keep getting this message:

stat: illegal option -- c

What's wrong with my code here or how can I fix it?

What about the following instead? I was told that date -r does what I want, but I can't seem to get it to. Since I can't find much information on how to use the date command, I've put it off to the side unless someone else knows how I can get the last modified date from a file with the date command.
Code:
date -r $1

Any other simple suggestions to get the last modification date of a file so that I can append it to the end of said file would be great too. I've been trying to figure out some variation of this problem for a few hours now and at this point I have no new ideas and am completely stagnant, so any help is really appreciated.
 

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GETFILEINFO(1)						    BSD General Commands Manual 					    GETFILEINFO(1)

NAME
/usr/bin/GetFileInfo -- get attributes of files and directories SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/GetFileInfo [-P -a[<attribute-letter>] | -c | -d | -m | -t] file ... DESCRIPTION
/usr/bin/GetFileInfo is a tool to get the file attributes. With no flags, GetFileInfo retrieves all information about the file. If exactly one option is provided, GetFileInfo retrieves and displays just that information; supplying more than one is an error. Flags: -P Acts on a symlink file instead of the file the symlink resolves to. -a[<attribute-letter>] Gets a file's attribute bits where <attribute-letter> is one of the following: a Alias file b Has bundle c Custom icon (allowed on folders) d Located on the desktop (allowed on folders) e Extension is hidden (allowed on folders) i Inited - Finder is aware of this file and has given it a location in a window. (allowed on folders) l Locked m Shared (can run multiple times) n File has no INIT resource s System file (name locked) t "Stationery Pad" file v Invisible (allowed on folders) z Busy (allowed on folders) The value of a single attribute is printed as 0 for off or false, 1 for on or true. If no attribute letter is specified, the value of all attributes is returned, with lowercase letters representing off or false, and uppercase representing on or true. -t Gets the file type, a string of exactly four characters. If the type is not set, these will display as an empty pair of quo- tation marks. Directories do not have types, so the type will be skipped if all information is being displayed; specifying -t for a directory is an error. -c Gets the file's creator, a string of four characters enclosed in quotation marks. If the creator is not set, these will dis- play as an empty pair of quotation marks. Directories do not have creators, so the creator will be skipped if all information is being displayed; specifying -c for a directory is an error. -d Gets the creation date, a string of the form "mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss" in 24-hour clock format. -m Gets the modification date, a string of the form "mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss" in 24-hour clock format. RETURN VALUES
0 success 1 syntax error 2 any other error SEE ALSO
SetFile(1) EXAMPLES
The following command line gets and prints the creator for the "Late Breaking News" file: /Developer/Tools/GetFileInfo -c "Late Breaking News" This command line prints the modification date of "myFile": /Developer/Tools/GetFileInfo -m myFile Mac OS X September 27, 2005 Mac OS X
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