How do you get the last modification date of a file?


 
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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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DtSearchValidDateString(library call)									     DtSearchValidDateString(library call)

NAME
DtSearchValidDateString -- Validate and convert a user date string SYNOPSIS
#include <Dt/Search.h> DtSrObjdate DtSearchValidDateString( char *date_string); DESCRIPTION
DtSearchValidDateString validates a DtSearch date string, as might have been entered by a user in a free form text field, and converts it into a valid DtSrObjdate. Since an invalid date string format returns a distinctive DtSrObjdate, this function may also be used as a boolean test for string valid- ity. ARGUMENTS
date_string Specifies the date string to be validated and converted. The format for a valid date string is "[yyyy [mm [dd]]", one, two, or three ASCII numeric tokens separated by one or more nonnu- meric chars (whitespace, slashes, etc). The integer yyyy represents a Gregorian calendar year number in the range 1990 to 5995 inclusive. If yyyy is less than 1900, 1900 is added to it. The integer mm is a Gregorian calendar month number in the range 1 to 12 inclusive. The integer dd is a Gregorian calendar day number in the range 1 to 31 inclusive. If only two tokens are in the string, they are presumed to be yyyy and mm, and dd is presumed to be to 1. If only one token is in the string, it is presumed to be yyyy, and both mm and dd are presumed to be 1. RETURN VALUE
DtSearchValidDateString returns zero (a valid DtSrObjdate) if date_string is NULL or empty. It returns a correctly formatted DtSrObjdate on successful parse and conversion. It returns -1 and a message on the MessageList if date_string is invalid. SEE ALSO
DtSrAPI(3), DtSearchQuery(3), dtsrfzkfiles(4), DtSearch(5) DtSearchValidDateString(library call)