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Python | os.path.getctime() method

Last Updated : 22 May, 2019
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OS module in Python provides functions for interacting with the operating system. OS comes under Python’s standard utility modules. This module provides a portable way of using operating system dependent functionality. os.path module is sub module of OS module in Python used for common path name manipulation.

os.path.getctime() method in Python is used to get system’s ctime of the specified path. Here ctime refers to the last metadata change for specified path in UNIX while in Windows, it refers to path creation time.
This method returns a floating point value which represents the number of seconds since the epoch. This method raise OSError if the file does not exist or is somehow inaccessible.

Note: The epoch represents the point where the time starts. It is platform dependent. For Unix, the epoch is January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 (UTC).

Syntax: os.path.getctime(path)

Parameter:
path: A path-like object representing a file system path. A path-like object is either a string or bytes object representing a path.

Return Type: This method returns a floating-point value of class ‘float’ that represents the ctime (in seconds) for the specified path.

Code #1: Use of os.path.getctime() method




# Python program to explain os.path.getctime() method 
    
# importing os and time module 
import os
import time
  
# Path
path = '/home/User/Documents/file.txt'
  
# Get the ctime of last
# for the specified path
c_time = os.path.getctime(path)
print("ctime since the epoch:", c_time)
  
# convert the ctime in
# seconds since epoch
# to local time
local_time = time.ctime(c_time)
print("ctime (Local time):", local_time)


Output:

ctime since the epoch: 1558447897.3122742
ctime (Local time): Tue May 21 19:41:37 2019

Code #2: Handling error while using os.path.getctime() method




# Python program to explain os.path.getctime() method 
    
# importing os, time and sys module 
import os
import sys
import time
  
# Path
path = '/home/User/Documents/file2.txt'
  
# Get the ctime 
# for the specified path
try:
    c_time = os.path.getctime(path)
    print("ctime since the epoch:", c_time)
  
except OSError:
    print("Path '%s' does not exists or is inaccessible" %path)
    sys.exit()
  
# convert ctime in
# seconds since epoch
# to local time
local_time = time.ctime(c_time)
print("ctime(Local time):", local_time)
  
  
# above code will print
# path does not exists or is inaccessible'
# if the specified path does not
# exists or is inaccessible
  


Output:

Path '/home/User/Documents/file2.txt' does not exists or is inaccessible

Reference: https://docs.python.org/3/library/os.path.html



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