how to get file/directory stat or information

The stat command is used to display detailed status of file, directory and file system.

Syntax: stat [options] FILE...

Example:

$ stat tmp/file1

Output:
File: tmp/file1
Size: 0 Blocks: 0  IO Block: 4096
Device: 12h/18d Inode: 3064192624  Links: 1
Access: (0660/-rw-rw----)  Uid: (    0/ UNKNOWN)   Gid: ( 1028/ UNKNOWN)
Access: 2015-02-28 15:39:03.000000000
Modify: 2015-02-28 15:39:03.000000000
Change: 2015-02-28 15:39:03.000000000

So, without options/arguments you can have the following details:

File	Size in Bytes
Blocks	Number of blocks used
IO Block	Size in bytes of every block
Device	The identifier number of your storage device (harddrive, etc.)
Inode	The inode number that the file or directory is linked to
Access/Modify and change Times	Note that the timestamps also include which time zone that accesses or modifications took place in

Arguments:
The following are some of the flags and arguments that can be used for the stat command:

Arguments	Details
-f  --filesystem	display filesystem status instead of file status
-c   --format	use the specified FORMAT instead of the default
-L  --dereference	follow links
-Z   --context	print the security context
--help	display the help and exit