Re: [PATCH] honor TIME_STYLE environment variable for formatting ls timestamp

On Tue, Nov 18, 2025 at 3:29 AM Matt Panaro <[email protected]> wrote:

> upon further reflection and experimentation, it seems like the easier
> solution to the referenced issue is the following (instead of a code
> patch):
>
> env TIME_STYLE='+%s' find ~/Documents -exec ls -ld \{\} \+
>

Just in case TIME_STYLE ever affects find itself (in the future for
example) this is more future-proof:

find ~/Documents -exec env TIME_STYLE='+%s' ls -ld \{\} \+



> one could alternatively invoke the ls command's parameter:
>
> find ~/Documents -exec ls --time-style='+%s' -ld \{\} \+
>

Indeed, and that doesn't have the risk I alluded to above.


> I do think it might be handy to have a parameter to coërce the -ls time
> output from find into something sortable, like
>
> find . -type f -ls -epoch
>
> without involving the user having to write any explicit formatting
> strings at all; but this probably isn't a common enough usecase to
> justify introducing an entirely new parameter to find. Maybe an update
> to the documentation for -ls, though?  suggesting -exec ls if the full
> features of the ls command are necessary?
>

If you think this is an important enough use-case to justify the consequent
maintenance of that additional documentation, could you please suggest a
patch to doc/find.texi to make the changes you have in mind?

Thanks,
James