how to check all timestamps of a file

Question

Is there a command in linux to check all timestamps of a file?

I'm trying to see the Last modified, created, and touched dates on the file.

Answer 1

The command is basically called stat.

charon:Desktop werner$ touch test
charon:Desktop werner$ stat test
234881026 41570368 -rw-r--r-- 1 werner staff 0 0 "Feb  7 16:03:06 2012" "Feb  7 16:03:06 2012" "Feb  7 16:03:06 2012" "Feb  7 16:03:06 2012" 4096 0 0 test

If you want to adjust the format, refer to the manpages, since the output is OS-specific and varies under Linux/Unix.

Generally, you can get the times through a normal directory listing as well:

• ls -l outputs last time the file content was modified, the mtime
• ls -lc outputs last time of file status modification, the ctime (What's the difference?)
• ls -lu outputs last access time (although the usefulness of this concept is subject to discussion)

And of course, ctime does not record when a file was "created". This is not possible in Unix (as @FatalError already stated in the comment above).