How to Check a File’s Modification Date on Linux Using Four Simple Commands

Overview

When you need to know when a file was last edited on a Linux system, several built‑in commands can provide the modification timestamp. This article presents four local methods and one remote method using httpie.

1. Using stat

The stat command displays detailed file attributes, including access, modify, and change times. Run it with the file name:

[root@localhost ~]# stat hello_script.sh
  File: ‘hello_script.sh’
  Size: 31	Blocks: 8	IO Block: 4096 regular file
  Device: fd00h/64768d Inode: 67169379 Links: 1
  Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (0/ root)  Gid: (0/ root)
  Access: 2020-10-15 19:13:24.628009932 +0800
  Modify: 2020-10-15 19:07:18.266426499 +0800
  Change: 2020-10-15 19:11:48.227856412 +0800
  Birth: -

The Modify line shows the last modification date and time.

2. Using stat -c %y for a concise output

To display only the modification timestamp, use the custom format option -c %y:

[root@localhost ~]# stat -c %y hello_script.sh
2020-10-15 19:07:18.266426499 +0800

3. Using date -r

The date command normally shows the current date, but with the -r flag it reports the modification time of a given file:

[root@localhost ~]# date -r hello_script.sh
Thu Oct 15 19:07:18 CST 2020

4. Using ls -lt to sort by modification time

The long‑list format ls -l can be combined with -t to order entries by their modification timestamps, showing the most recent files first:

[root@localhost ~]# ls -lt
# or
[root@localhost ~]# ll -t

The output lists files with their permissions, owners, sizes, and the modification date column.

5. Checking remote file dates with httpie

httpie

is an HTTP client that can retrieve HTTP headers. After installing it (e.g., yum install python-pip && pip install httpie or apt install httpie), you can request the Last-Modified header of a remote resource:

http -h https://www.example.com/file.png | grep -i 'Last-Modified'

Example output:

Last-Modified: Fri, 05 Jun 2020 14:26:11 GMT

Conclusion

By using stat, stat -c %y, date -r, ls -lt, or the httpie tool, you can quickly obtain the modification date of local files or remote resources on a Linux system.