Meta data of text file Meta data of text file unix unix

Meta data of text file


I can think of lots of metadata that even a plain text file has -- creator, size, permissions, last accessed time, last modified time, etc. -- some of which probably depend on which OS you're talking about. I'd suggest looking at the directory operations and/or the file data structures in the system libraries on the particular OS for a more complete list for each particular OS.

Depending on the usage of the file, it might contain some metadata -- for example, a script file might indicate the program used to run the script at the top -- but in general a plain text file doesn't contain metadata itself.


What file system? Strictly speaking, a "plain text file" doesn't contain any meta data, not even the name of the file. All of that is handled by the file system.


On Linux (not in the file content, but in the filesystem):

  • Permissions
  • Owner
  • Group
  • Size
  • References Count
  • Date of last change
  • Name

There are a few others (like a readonly flag), but you will usually not need them.