Table of Contents

BASH - Find - Find files by timestamp

There are 3 timestamps maintained for every file:

Find File Timestamps

stat test.txt

returns: 

  File: test.txt
  Size: 240       	Blocks: 8          IO Block: 4096   regular file
Device: fd00h/64768d	Inode: 324228      Links: 1
Access: (0664/-rw-rw-r--)  Uid: ( 1000/   peter)   Gid: ( 1000/   peter)
Access: 2022-05-10 16:21:46.929658946 +0100
Modify: 2021-01-29 15:47:17.110477701 +0000
Change: 2021-01-29 15:47:17.110477701 +0000
 Birth: -

Find Files Based on Timestamp

Use the argument -newerXY: 

find . -newerat ‘2021-02-19 06:34’
find . -newerct ‘2021-02-19 06:34’
find . -newermt ‘2021-02-19 06:34’

NOTE: The arguments are:

  • -newerat: last access.
  • -newerct: last status change.
  • -newerct: last modification times.

The birth time, i.e. the creation time of a file is not maintained in Unix based file systems.