How to print date and time returned by stat function

Question

Program:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<fcntl.h>
#include<sys/stat.h>
#include<sys/types.h>
#include<unistd.h>
void main()
{
    struct stat stbuf;
    stat("alphabet",&stbuf);
    printf("Access time  = %d\n",stbuf.st_atime);
    printf("Modification time  = %d\n",stbuf.st_mtime);
    printf("Change time  = %d\n",stbuf.st_mtime);
}

The above program gives the following output:

Output:

$ ./a.out 
Access time  = 1441619019
Modification time  = 1441618853
Change time  = 1441618853
$

It print the date in seconds. In C, what is the way to print the time as human readable format which is returned by stat function. Return type of stbuf.st_atime is __time_t.

Thanks in Advance...

OT: `main()` returns `int` not `void`. – alk Sep 07 '15 at 12:42 — alk, Sep 07 '15 at 12:42

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 21 '23 at 09:35

Try to use char* ctime (const time_t * timer); function from time.h library.

#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(void)
{
    struct stat stbuf;
    stat("alphabet", &stbuf);
    printf("Access time  = %s\n", ctime(&stbuf.st_atime));
    printf("Modification time  = %s\n", ctime(&stbuf.st_mtime));
    printf("Change time  = %s\n", ctime(&stbuf.st_mtime));
}

It will give your following result:

$ ./test
Access time  = Mon Sep 07 15:23:31 2015

Modification time  = Mon Sep 07 15:23:31 2015

Change time  = Mon Sep 07 15:23:31 2015

How to print date and time returned by stat function

1 Answers1