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Preview Ruby 4.1 is a preview. It can change before the final release. Switch to Ruby 4.0 →

instance method

File#birthtime

() -> ::Time
birthtime → new_time

Returns a new Time object containing the create time for self:

Example
filepath = 't.tmp'
File.write(filepath, 'foo')
file = File.new(filepath)
file.birthtime # => 2026-04-14 15:53:45.002656 -0500
File.write(filepath, 'bar')
file.birthtime # => 2026-04-14 15:53:45.002656 -0500
file.close
File.delete(filepath)
file.birthtime # Raises IOError: closed stream

See File System Timestamps.

See also .birthtime #atime #chmod .zero? also in 4.0 · 3.4 · 3.3 · 3.2 · 3.1 · 3.0