title: Unix command (other than 'stat' and 'ls') to get file modification date without parsing
body: <p>I am writing a shell script in which I have to find the last modification date of a file.</p>
  
  <p><code>Stat</code> command is not available in my environment.</p>
  
  <p>So i am using <code>'ls'</code> as below to get desired result. </p>
  
  <pre><code>ls -l filename | awk '{print $6 $7 $8}'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But I have read in many forums that <a href="http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs" rel="noreferrer">parsing <code>ls</code> is generally considered bad practise</a>. While it (probably) works fine most of time, it's not guaranteed to work everytime.</p>
  
  <p>Is there any other way to get file modification date in shell script.</p>