md5_vs_stat.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -e

tempfile="$(mktemp)"
trap "rm -rf $tempfile" EXIT

dd if=/dev/zero of=$tempfile bs=1M count=1

start="$(date +%s%N)"
for ((i=0; i<1000; i++)); do
    md5sum $tempfile >/dev/null 2>&1
done
echo "md5sum:	$(( $(date +%s%N) - $start))"

start="$(date +%s%N)"
for ((i=0; i<1000; i++)); do
    stat -c '%y' $tempfile >/dev/null 2>&1
done
echo "stat:	$(( $(date +%s%N) - $start))"