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macosgnubsdstatbinutils

Binutils stat illegal option -c

I use stat two times in my script once to find the file files permissions and once to find the size of the file.

 `stat -c %A "$directory/$file"`
 `stat -c %s "$directory/$file"`

I am using OSX 10.7 and directory and file are variable of the current directory I am in and the file.

Solution

  • Darwin stat uses an -f argument, rather than -c, as it is a GNU extension.

    You should download the gnu binutils, either from homebrew, from macports or from fink, and then use gstat instead of stat.

    If you don't want to install gnu binutils and prefer to stick with the standard BSD tools, then:

    stat -f%p t.c

    will return the modes (in octal) and

    stat -f%z t.c

    will return the size.