Display the dates associated with a Unix file

Display the Dates Associated With a Unix File

Here's a little programme that gets all the access dates associated with a Unix file. The first date (called 'access' here) is the date that the file was last opened, even for a read. The other two dates show the date the file was last written to and the date it had its status changed, respectively.

/* -------------------------------------------------
   Name: ft
   Purpose: Displays the access, modified and status
            change times for a given filename
   ---------------------------------------------- */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <dirent.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>

main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
char *FilePathName; /* File to interrogate (from command line) */
struct stat ThisEntryStatus; /* Buffer for directory status entries */
time_t AccessSeconds;
time_t ModifiedSeconds;
time_t StatusSeconds;
char AccessBuffer[20];
char ModifiedBuffer[20];
char StatusBuffer[20];

if(argc == 2)
FilePathName = argv[1];
else
{
printf("-----------------------------------------------------n");
printf("Usage: ft <filename>\n");
printf(" (where <filename> is any valid file.)\n");
printf("This will display the access, modified and status\n");
printf("change times for the file in the format...\n\n");
printf("CCYYMMDDhhmmss CCYYMMDDhhmmss CCYYMMDDhhmmss\n\n");
printf("...returning 0 if it succeeds or non-zero if it fails\n");
printf("-----------------------------------------------------\n\n");
return(1);
}
if (stat(FilePathName, &ThisEntryStatus) == 0)
{
/* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got a status record: extract the times in seconds since 00:00:00 UTC, Jan. 1, 1970
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */
AccessSeconds = ThisEntryStatus.st_atim.tv_sec;
ModifiedSeconds = ThisEntryStatus.st_mtim.tv_sec;
StatusSeconds = ThisEntryStatus.st_ctim.tv_sec;

/* ---------------------------------------------
Now convert the time in seconds to strings...
NOTE that you must pass the address of the
        source variable - not the variable itself!
------------------------------------------ */
cftime(AccessBuffer, "%Y%m%d%H%M%S", &ThisEntryStatus.st_atim.tv_sec);
cftime(ModifiedBuffer, "%Y%m%d%H%M%S", &ThisEntryStatus.st_mtim.tv_sec);
cftime(StatusBuffer, "%Y%m%d%H%M%S", &ThisEntryStatus.st_ctim.tv_sec);

/* -------------------------------------------
Print out the results and exit with zero...
---------------------------------------- */
printf("%s %s %s\n", AccessBuffer, ModifiedBuffer, StatusBuffer);

return(0) ;
}
/* -----------------------------------
If we get here there's a problem...
-------------------------------- */
printf("ft: Failed to stat [%s]\n", FilePathName);
return(2) ;
}