bash-4.2$ touch -t 200103040506.07 jgoldschrafe bash-4.2$ ls -l jgoldschrafe -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 4 2001 jgoldschrafe bash-4.2$ stat jgoldschrafe File: 'jgoldschrafe' Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file Device: 801h/2049d Inode: 1932288 Links: 1 Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--) Uid: ( 1/ root) Gid: ( 1/ root) Access: 2001-03-04 05:06:07.000000000 +0200 Modify: 2001-03-04 05:06:07.000000000 +0200 Change: 2012-07-19 17:54:30.000000000 +0300 Birth: - bash-4.2$ stat -c %Y jgoldschrafe 983675167 bash-4.2$ stat -c %Y jgoldschrafe | date +%Y%m%d 20120719 bash-4.2$ date -d@$(stat -c %Y jgoldschrafe) +%Y%m%d 20010304 bash-4.2$ date --version date (GNU coreutils) 8.17 Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later . This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Written by David MacKenzie.