How to display file properties via terminal?

Question

What is the command line that displays file informations (or properties), such as in GUI method Display properties in GNOME?

Display properties GNOME

I know that ls -l shows properties; but how to display the same informations?

For example, instead of

rw-rw-r--

we have such GUI rendering:

abdennour@estifeda: $wishedCmd myFile
 ..... 
  Permissions : 
    Owner Access: Read & write 
    Group Access :Read & Write 
    Others Access: Read only
   .....

Screenshot of permissions dialogue

What about stat? That will give you a huge amount of information on a selected file or folder; see man stat. — , Oct 08 '13 at 15:33

score 165 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 25 '16 at 18:17

165

Use the stat command to know the details of the file. If file name is file_name, use

stat file_name

edited Jun 25 '16 at 18:17

muru

197,895
55
485
740

answered Apr 08 '14 at 09:30

Arun. K. P

1,751

score 41 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 08 '13 at 13:45

41

There is no dedicated command for this. For meta information like time, size and access rights, use

ls -l path-to-file

You might also be interested in what kind of file it is, file path-to-file will help you with that.

answered Oct 08 '13 at 13:45

Jens Erat

5,051
7
31
37

score 32 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 08 '13 at 13:45

32

Have you tried file?

For example:

file picture.jpg

answered Oct 08 '13 at 13:45

SirCharlo

39,486

1

I'm sure he meant permissions. – Braiam Oct 08 '13 at 15:07

score 19 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 08 '14 at 10:00

Something like

#!/bin/bash
print_perm() {
  case "$1" in
    0) printf "NO PERMISSIONS";;
    1) printf "Execute only";;
    2) printf "Write only";;
    3) printf "Write & execute";;
    4) printf "Read only";;
    5) printf "Read & execute";;
    6) printf "Read & write";;
    7) printf "Read & write & execute";;
  esac
}

[[ ! -e $1 ]] &&  echo "$0 <file or dir>" 2>&1 && exit 1

perm=$(stat -c%a "$1")
user=${perm:0:1}
group=${perm:1:1}
global=${perm:2:1}

echo "Permissions :"
printf "\tOwner Access: $(print_perm $user)\n"
printf "\tGroup Access: $(print_perm $group)\n"
printf "\tOthers Access: $(print_perm $global)\n"

Output

# rwxr-x--- foo*
> ./abovescript foo
Permissions :
    Owner Access: Read & write & execute
    Group Access: Read & execute
    Others Access: NO PERMISSIONS

score 13 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 03 '15 at 12:17

13

ls -lh filename

for human readable version

edited Aug 03 '15 at 12:17

A.B.

90,397

answered Aug 03 '15 at 11:41

Ross Jones

231

2

This makes the filesize "readable". You get 32K instead of 31900. But does not help for access rights. But helpful anyway ;-) – Tobias Gaertner Jul 12 '19 at 06:02
Yea slight change, but not having to do mental size conversion is a plus. Good tip. – Andrew Jun 04 '22 at 06:25

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 20 '19 at 05:19

3

Display the attributes of the files in the current directory:

lsattr

List the attributes of files in a particular path:

lsattr path

List file attributes recursively in the current and subsequent directories:

lsattr -R

Show attributes of all the files in the current directory, including hidden ones:

lsattr -a

Display attributes of directories in the current directory:

lsattr -d

answered Dec 20 '19 at 05:19

Bou Said

111

is there a way to see if the file is a 32 or 64 bit executable? – Robert Houghton Dec 30 '19 at 16:29
In Terminal you can use :
objdump -f file.exe

you'II see file format output like this : `

file.exe: file format pei-i386 architecture: i386, flags 0x0000..: EXEC_P, HAS_DEBUG, D_PAGED start address 0x00402....

So file format pei-i386 => 32bit

Other method to check out what format the executable file has. using file command as example:

$ file myfile.exe

response > myfile.exe: PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows ```
– Bou Said Jan 09 '20 at 01:47
I tried the objdump way first and got "file format not recognized" then when I used the file command got "POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable, with very long lines" – Robert Houghton Jan 09 '20 at 01:57

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 08 '13 at 13:45

1

You can use ls command to list files and their properties by adding the -l option. Example:

$ls -l filename

answered Oct 08 '13 at 13:45

Hakeem Wahab

625

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered May 08 '19 at 22:17

0

As described in the Linux Pocket Guide by Daniel J. Barrett you can list extended attributes of files and directories with:

lsattr file_name

answered May 08 '19 at 22:17

rbelow

101

Ahmad Ismail · Answer 9 · 2023-06-24T18:14:02.597

You can try the following script:

set filepath "$HOME/.bashrc"
set fileuri $(echo $filepath | python -c "import sys, pathlib; print(pathlib.Path(input()).resolve().as_uri())")
dbus-send --session --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.FileManager1 /org/freedesktop/FileManager1 org.freedesktop.FileManager1.ShowItemProperties array:string:"$fileuri" string:""

P.S. If you do not convert file path to file uri then path like $HOME/Desktop/directory with spaces and ümläuts.txt will not work.

score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Oct 08 '13 at 14:37

0

Use

ls -l filename

(use small L)

edited Oct 08 '13 at 14:37

Eric Carvalho

54,385

answered Oct 08 '13 at 13:48

Gurupal singh

369

How to display file properties via terminal?

10 Answers10

Display the attributes of the files in the current directory:

List the attributes of files in a particular path:

List file attributes recursively in the current and subsequent directories:

Show attributes of all the files in the current directory, including hidden ones:

Display attributes of directories in the current directory: