File Time C Code

filetime

On Unix systems the ls program can be used to display the creation times of files. However, the output of ls is not always useful within scripts because:

The creation time is only accurate to the minute.
The format of the output changes depending on the age of the file.
The output requires complex filtering by programs such as sed, awk or grep

The filetime program displays the timestamps of files in a form which is easier to manipulate. Execute filetime as follows:

    filetime -[a|c|m] -[e|[s format]] [-h] [file...]

The -a, -c and -m options indicate whether the access, status change or modification time should be displayed. The last modification time is displayed by default.

The -e (default) and -s parameters specify the display format. The -e parameter causes the number of seconds from the start of the Unix epoch to be displayed. The -s parameter requires a format string as specified for the strftime(3) function.

The -h parameter displays help information. Parameters are the names of files to be displayed.

Example

sms> filetime *.c
errno.c:        1133040153
filetime.c:     1133128901
sinfo.c:        1133040153
sizeof.c:       1133040153
sysconf.c:      1133040153
telltime.c:     1133040153
sms>
sms>
sms> filetime -s "%H %M %S" *.c
errno.c:        21 22 33
filetime.c:     22 01 41
sinfo.c:        21 22 33
sizeof.c:       21 22 33
sysconf.c:      21 22 33
telltime.c:     21 22 33
sms>

filetime.c

filetime.c processes each file in turn, calling stat(2) to find the file data. If formatted output is requested then this is formed using strftime(3).

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