[Tex/LaTex] Date of file creation

datetime

When I write my notes, (I actually use lyx but that does not matter) I like to add a header with the name of file and the date the file was compiled. This I do using fancyhdr package and

\pagestyle{fancy}
\lhead{\texttt{\jobname}}
\rhead{\textsf{\today}}

(to tell the truth in lyx I have to use \jobname.lyx, but, again, this does not matter).

The point is that it would be much more useful (at least for me) to be able to print the date when the file was first created. Is there a way in TeX/LaTeX to access the time information of a latex file? I can understand the answer might be OS dependent. I am actually using a linux distribution. I looked in many other forums/FAQ but could not find the answer so far.

Best Answer

This will work on linux, with \write18 enabled; i.e., run using pdftex --shell-escape:

{\catcode`\%=12
\immediate\write18
 {/usr/bin/stat --format '\string\foo\space %yZ' \jobname.tex >\jobname.date}
 \def\foo#1 #2Z{\gdef\filedate{#1}}
 \input\jobname.date
}
The file is dated \filedate.
\bye

As I state in a comment above, you cannot get the file creation date, though. This gives you the file modification date instead.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Insert date set with \date command

It is not quite clear what exactly do you want to do. Usually the title is created by using \maketitle at the point of the document where you want to insert it. However it will be formatted whichever way your documentclass defines it. Redefining it is, of course, possible: you have to define \@maketitle appropriately, in which you can refer to \@title, etc.

However if you are not writing your own class, there might not be much of a point doing this. If you just want a title page, you don't have to use the \title etc commands, just put in the title whichever way you want. There is also a \begin{titlepage} - \end{titlepage} environment for creating a custom titlepage, but again, it does not use the \title command.

EDIT:

Yet another indirect option (along the lines of Andrea R's solution): define your own \thedate, \thetitle, etc commands using \newcommand, and then just use it in the titlepage:

\newcommand{\thedate}{\today}
\newcommand{\thetitle}{Your title}
...
\begin{titlepage}
   \centering\textbf{\thetitle}
\end{titlepage}

[Tex/LaTex] Query regarding usage of \date

\date merely sets the date and doesn't print it, just like \title and \author also doesn't typeset anything. Actually, \date stores its value in \@date, which you can retrieve if you don't use \maketitle (since it acts in a self-destruct fashion, wiping out most of the title-related information after its usage). If you which to print it, you could define

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\printdate}{\@date}
\makeatother

in your preamble and use \printdate wherever you want to show the date specified through \date.

However, the best way to access the date and print it in various formats, is to use the isodate package. See Date format in LaTeX.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Insert date set with \date command

[Tex/LaTex] Query regarding usage of \date

Related Question