How to display file properties via terminal?

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

1

9 Answers

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

stat file_name
0

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.

Have you tried file?

For example:

file picture.jpg
1

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
ls -lh filename

for human readable version

2

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

3

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

$ls -l filename

Use

ls -l filename

(use small L)

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

lsattr file_name

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