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Python | os.path.getmtime() method

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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.getmtime() method in Python is used to get the time of last modification of the specified path. 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.getmtime(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 time (in seconds) of last modification of the specified path. 
 

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

Python3




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


Output: 

Last modification time since the epoch: 1558447897.0442736
Last modification time (Local time): Tue May 21 19:41:37 2019

 

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

Python3




# Python program to explain os.path.getmtime() method
   
# importing os, time and sys module
import os
import sys
import time
 
# Path
path = '/home/User/Documents/file2.txt'
 
# Get the time of last
# modification of the specified
# path since the epoch
try:
    modification_time = os.path.getmtime(path)
    print("Last modification time since the epoch:", modification_time)
 
except OSError:
    print("Path '%s' does not exists or is inaccessible" %path)
    sys.exit()
 
# convert the time in
# seconds since epoch
# to local time
local_time = time.ctime(modification_time)
print("Last modification time(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



Last Updated : 10 Oct, 2021
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