perlfaq nodetype
faq_monk
<P>
If you want to retrieve the time at which the file was last read, written,
or had its meta-data (owner, etc) changed, you use the <STRONG>-M</STRONG>,
<STRONG>-A</STRONG>, or <STRONG>-C</STRONG> filetest operations as documented in [perlman:perlfunc|the perlfunc manpage]. These retrieve the age of the file (measured against the start-time of your program) in days as a floating point number. To retrieve the ``raw'' time in seconds since the epoch, you would call the stat function, then use
<CODE>localtime(),</CODE>
<CODE>gmtime(),</CODE> or POSIX::strftime() to convert this into human-readable form.
<P>
Here's an example:
<P>
<PRE> $write_secs = (stat($file))[9];
printf "file %s updated at %s\n", $file,
scalar localtime($write_secs);
</PRE>
<P>
If you prefer something more legible, use the File::stat module (part of
the standard distribution in version 5.004 and later):
<P>
<PRE> use [perlman:File::stat|File::stat];
use Time::localtime;
$date_string = ctime(stat($file)->mtime);
print "file $file updated at $date_string\n";
</PRE>
<P>
Error checking is left as an exercise for the reader.
<P>