On Jun 6, 2012, at 9:29 AM, Alain Ketterlin wrote: > loial <jldunn2...@gmail.com> writes: > >> I have a requirement to test the creation time of a file with the >> current time and raise a message if the file is more than 15 minutes >> old. >> Platform is Unix. >> I have looked at using os.path.getctime for the file creation time and >> time.time() for the current time, but is this the best approach? > > No. getctime() returns the last "change" time. The creation time is not > kept anywhere. This may still match your requirement though. And os.path > is the right package to look at for such tasks. > > -- Alain. > -- > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
If you REALLY want the creation time rather than the last time the file was touched, you will probably have to invoke the subprocess module and call ls -U, something like the following: creation_time = subprocess.check_output(["ls", "-U", string_filename_variable]) The -U option isn't universal, but it does exist in most of the UNIces I'm familiar with. -Bill -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
