[shasts]

Current work machine. Running fine for 4.5 years.

  $ stat / | grep "Birth" | sed 's/Birth: //g' | cut -b 2-11
  2020-06-20



  $ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources
  # Modernized from /etc/apt/sources.list
  Types: deb deb-src
  URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
  Suites: unstable
  Components: main non-free contrib
  Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

  # Modernized from /etc/apt/sources.list
  Types: deb
  URIs: http://deb.debian.org/debian/
  Suites: testing
  Components: main non-free non-free-firmware contrib
  Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

You may also want `apt-listbugs` package to see the serious bugs before running upgrade.

[Anthony-G]

I’m no AWK expert but I know just enough to tell when it’s the right tool for a particular job. Most pipelines consisting of `grep`, `sed` and `cut` commands can be replaced with a single AWK command. In this case:

    stat / | awk '/Birth:/ { print $2; }'

For the line containing the `Birth:` regex, print the second field (by default, fields are delimited by spaces). Other lines that don’t match the regex are ignored.

[kennysoona]

Wouldn't running uptime be quicker than your stat command pipeline?

[shasts]

stat command gets the detail of when the OS was installed on the machine. uptime doesn't give that. I wanted to say that I have been using the same development machine at work for 4.5 years. "running" was not the right word for it, obviously.

[kennysoona]

Makes sense, thanks.