We can get the time information of a file from python using the following code:
1.
import os.path, time
modify_time = time.ctime(os.path.getmtime(file))
create_time = time.ctime(os.path.getctime(file))
access_time = time.ctime(os.path.getatime(file))
2.
import os, time
sts = os.stat(file)
# sts include (mode, ino, dev, nlink, uid, gid, size, atime, mtime, ctime).
We are more interested in the time information of a file in this article.
And in the codes above, we can pick out the access time, modification time, and an ambiguous ctime.
I'll put things in short:
access time: the time you last read a file.
modification time: you modify the content of a file.
ctime are different on windows from linux.
On windows:
the ctime would be the creation time. You may try doing changes to the file (rename, edit, etc.), it keeps the same.
On linux:
the ctime would be the change tme.
This means: rename, access permission change or changing any other information in the file's inode would cause the ctime to change.
So, be careful, though python is cross-platform, you won't get the same thing using os.path.getctime() all the time.