Is it possible to do a 'find . -ctime n' in JDK7?

Question

Is it possible to do a equivalent 'find . -ctime n' (Unix command) in JDK7? i.e. find all files based on last changed time? I had a look at the new FileVisitor/BasicFileAttributes/SimpleFileVisitor classes but I cannot see how it could be done.

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered May 21 '11 at 12:55

5

The following worked for me (using Files.walkFileTree and a FileVisitor) :

FileTime ctime = (FileTime) Files.getAttribute(path, "unix:ctime");

answered May 21 '11 at 12:55

Wayne

914
2
13
25

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 21 '11 at 13:36

In the JDK 7 Forums there is discussion opened on the subject

It basically says:

From creationTime's description "If the file system implementation does not support a time stamp to indicate the time when the file was created then this method returns an implementation specific default value, typically the last-modified-time or a FileTime representing the epoch (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z)". So the behavior you observe is expected. The time of last status change is available if you really need it, try Files.getAttribute(path, "unix:ctime").

So, your own answer seems to be the right one.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 20 '11 at 13:55

1

You can get the creation time of a file by calling getCreationTime() on its file attributes object. You can do a directory tree walk using Files.walkFileTree and a FileVisitor. Put these together and you can implement find . -ctime n.

answered May 20 '11 at 13:55

Stephen C

698,415
94
811
1,216

Creation time and last changed time are not the same. I've already tried getCreationTime(), lastAccessTime(), and lastModifiedTime(). None of them mimic -ctime. – Wayne May 20 '11 at 22:07
1

As another example, if I were to sort by getCreationTime(), then this would be the equivalent of 'ls -lt', but what I'm trying to do is a 'ls -ltc' sort. – Wayne May 20 '11 at 22:40
After further investigation, I think getCreationTime() is broken. It seems that getCreationTime() and lastModifiedTime() are returning the same values. – Wayne May 21 '11 at 02:50

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 09 '11 at 16:57

Here's what creationTime's javadoc says:

If the file system implementation does not support a time stamp to indicate the time when the file was created then this method returns an implementation specific default value, typically the last-modified-time or a FileTime representing the epoch (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z).

As the creation is not typical on Unix/Linux then the method is returning the last modified time.

Is it possible to do a 'find . -ctime n' in JDK7?

4 Answers4