How to print time_t in a specific format?

Question

ls command prints time in this format:

Aug 23 06:07 

How can I convert time received from stat()'s mtime() into this format for local time?

Answer 1

Use strftime (you need to convert time_t to struct tm* first):

char buff[20];
struct tm * timeinfo;
timeinfo = localtime (&mtime);
strftime(buff, sizeof(buff), "%b %d %H:%M", timeinfo);

Formats:

%b - The abbreviated month name according to the current locale.

%d - The day of the month as a decimal number (range 01 to 31).

%H - The hour as a decimal number using a 24-hour clock (range 00 to 23).

%M - The minute as a decimal number (range 00 to 59).

Here is the full code:

struct stat info; 
char buff[20]; 
struct tm * timeinfo;

stat(workingFile, &info); 

timeinfo = localtime (&(info.st_mtime)); 
strftime(buff, 20, "%b %d %H:%M", timeinfo); 
printf("%s",buff);