---
name: "shtool-mdate"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "shtool"
version: "2.0.8-10"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/shtool-mdate"
---

# shtool-mdate(1)

GNU shtool pretty-print last modification time

## NAME

shtool-mdate - GNU shtool pretty-print last modification time

## SYNOPSIS

**shtool mdate** \[**-n**\|**--newline**\] \[**-z**\|**--zero**\] \[**-s**\|**--shorten**\] \[**-d**\|**--digits**\] \[**-f**\|**--field-sep** *str*\] \[**-o**\|**--order** *spec*\] *path*

## DESCRIPTION

This command pretty-prints the last modification time of a given file or directory *path*, while still allowing one to specify the format of the date to display.

## OPTIONS

The following command line options are available.

- **-n**, **--newline**

  By default, output is written to *stdout* followed by a "newline" (ASCII character 0x0a). If option **-n** is used, this newline character is omitted.

- **-z**, **--zero**

  Pads numeric day and numeric month with a leading zero. Default is to have variable width.

- **-s**, **--shorten**

  Shortens the name of the month to a english three character abbreviation. Default is full english name. This option is silently ignored when combined with **-d**.

- **-d**, **--digits**

  Use digits for month. Default is to use a english name.

- **-f**, **--field-sep** *str*

  Field separator string between the day month year tripple. Default is a single space character.

- **-o**, **--order** *spec*

  Specifies order of the day month year elements within the tripple. Each element represented as a single character out of \`\``"d"`'', \`\``"m"`'' and \`\``"y"`''. The default for *spec* is \`\``"dmy"`''.

## EXAMPLE

```
 #   shell script
 shtool mdate -n /
 shtool mdate -f '/' -z -d -o ymd foo.txt
 shtool mdate -f '-' -s foo.txt
```

## HISTORY

The **GNU shtool** **mdate** command was originally written by Ulrich Drepper in 1995 and revised by Ralf S. Engelschall \<rse@engelschall.com\> in 1998 for inclusion into **GNU shtool**.

## SEE ALSO

[**shtool**(1)](/shtool/1.md), [**date**(1)](/date/1.md), [**ls**(1)](/ls/1.md).