How to cast stat.mtime (float) to readable date-time

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1

I need to display the date-time that a file was last updated.

The value can be obtained with stat on the file:

  • name: Get file stats

stat: path=“{{ path_of_file }}”

register: reg

  • debug:

msg: “Timestamp of {{path}}: {{reg.stat.mtime}}”

However the output is meaningless because it is a float value.
The only solution I could find requires the creation of a custom filter: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/41084097/ansible-cast-float-to-date

Is there a simpler way?

Thank you all.
Jim

2

You want something like this:

  • debug:
    msg: “Timestamp of {{ path }}: {{ ‘%c’|strftime(reg.stat.mtime) }}”

Documentation about the strftime filter can be found at https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_filters.html

3

Thanks for the advice, Matt!

Here’s what I ended up using:

  • debug:

msg: “Timestamp of {{logpath}}: {{ '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S’ | strftime(reg.stat.mtime) }}”

Cheers

Jim