Python os.utime() Function Example
Modification and Access Time of a File
In this example, the script uses os.stat()
to retrieve the current access and modification times of a file named file.txt
. The script then sets new access and modification times for the file using os.utime()
with specified values in seconds. After updating the timestamps, the script prints the new values to confirm the changes.
Python3
import os # Path path = '/home / ihritik / Documents / file.txt' # Print current access and modification time print ( "Current access time:" , os.stat(path).st_atime) print ( "Current modification time:" , os.stat(path).st_mtime) # Access time in seconds atime = 200000000 # Modification time in seconds mtime = 100000000 tup = (atime, mtime) os.utime(path, tup) print ( "\nAccess and modification time changed\n" ) # Print current access and modification time print ( "Current access time:" , os.stat(path).st_atime) print ( "Current modification time:" , os.stat(path).st_mtime) |
Current access time (in seconds): 1568930018.710342 Current modification time (in seconds): 1568930018.610892 Access and modification time changed Current access time (in seconds): 200000000.0 Current modification time (in seconds): 100000000.0
File Timestamps with Nanosecond Precision
In this example, the script uses os.stat()
to display the current access and modification times of the file file.txt
in nanoseconds. It then employs utime
with the ns
argument to update these timestamps to new nanosecond values, subsequently confirming the modifications through printed output.
Python3
import os # Path path = '/home / ihritik / Documents / file.txt' # Print current access and modification time print ( "Current access time (in seconds):" , os.stat(path).st_atime) print ( "Current modification time (in seconds):" , os.stat(path).st_mtime) # Access time in nanoseconds atime_ns = 20000000012345 # Modification time in nanoseconds mtime_ns = 10000000012345 tup = (atime_ns, mtime_ns) os.utime(path, ns = tup) print ( "\nAccess and modification time changed\n" ) # Print current access and modification time print ( "Current access time (in seconds):" , os.stat(path).st_atime) print ( "Current modification time (in seconds):" , os.stat(path).st_mtime) |
Current access time (in seconds): 1568930018.710342 Current modification time (in seconds): 1568930018.610892 Access and modification time changed Current access time (in seconds): 20000.000012345 Current modification time (in seconds): 10000.000012345
Modifying File Timestamps using os.utime()
If times parameter is None and ns parameter is unspecified. In this example, the script first displays the current access and modification times of the file file.txt
in seconds using os.stat()
. It then calls os.utime(path)
to update these timestamps to the current time, and subsequently verifies the changes by printing the updated timestamps.
Python3
import os # Path path = '/home / ihritik / Documents / file.txt' print ( "Current access time (in seconds):" , os.stat(path).st_atime) print ( "Current modification time (in seconds):" , os.stat(path).st_mtime) os.utime(path) print ( "\nAccess and modification time changed\n" ) # Print current access and modification time print ( "Current access time (in seconds):" , os.stat(path).st_atime) print ( "Current modification time (in seconds):" , os.stat(path).st_mtime) |
Current access time (in seconds): 20000.000012345 Current modification time (in seconds): 10000.000012345 Access and modification time changed Current access time (in seconds): 1568930018.710342 Current modification time (in seconds): 1568930018.610892
Python | os.utime() method
os.utime()
method of OS module in Python is used to set the access and modified time of the specified path.