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STAT(2) BSD System Calls Manual STAT(2) NAME stat, lstat, fstat, fstatat -- get file status LIBRARY Standard C Library (libc, -lc) SYNOPSIS #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> int stat(const char *path, struct stat *sb); int lstat(const char *path, struct stat *sb); int fstat(int fd, struct stat *sb); int fstatat(int fd, const char *path, struct stat *buf, int flag); DESCRIPTION The stat() system call obtains information about the file pointed to by path. Read, write or execute permission of the named file is not re- quired, but all directories listed in the path name leading to the file must be searchable. The lstat() system call is like stat() except in the case where the named file is a symbolic link, in which case lstat() returns information about the link, while stat() returns information about the file the link refer- ences. The fstat() system call obtains the same information about an open file known by the file descriptor fd. The fstatat() system call is equivalent to stat() and lstat() except in the case where the path specifies a relative path. In this case the sta- tus is retrieved from a file relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor fd instead of the current working directory. The values for the flag are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive OR of flags from the following list, defined in <fcntl.h>: AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW If path names a symbolic link, the status of the symbolic link is returned. If fstatat() is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the fd parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is identical to a call to stat() or lstat() respectively, depending on whether or not the AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW bit is set in flag. The sb argument is a pointer to a stat structure as defined by <sys/stat.h> and into which information is placed concerning the file. The fields of struct stat related to the file system are as follows: st_dev The numeric ID of the device containing the file. st_ino The file's inode number. st_nlink The number of hard links to the file. The st_dev and st_ino fields together identify the file uniquely within the system. The time-related fields of struct stat are as follows: st_atime Time when file data last accessed. Changed by the mknod(2), utimes(2), read(2) and readv(2) system calls. st_mtime Time when file data last modified. Changed by the mkdir(2), mkfifo(2), mknod(2), utimes(2), write(2) and writev(2) system calls. st_ctime Time when file status was last changed (inode data modifi- cation). Changed by the chflags(2), chmod(2), chown(2), creat(2), link(2), mkdir(2), mkfifo(2), mknod(2), rename(2), rmdir(2), symlink(2), truncate(2), unlink(2), utimes(2), write(2) and writev(2) system calls. st_birthtime Time when the inode was created. If _POSIX_SOURCE is not defined, the time-related fields are defined as: #ifndef _POSIX_SOURCE #define st_atime st_atimespec.tv_sec #define st_mtime st_mtimespec.tv_sec #define st_ctime st_ctimespec.tv_sec #endif The size-related fields of the struct stat are as follows: st_size The file size in bytes. st_blksize The optimal I/O block size for the file. st_blocks The actual number of blocks allocated for the file in 512-byte units. As short symbolic links are stored in the inode, this number may be zero. The access-related fields of struct stat are as follows: st_uid The user ID of the file's owner. st_gid The group ID of the file. st_mode Status of the file (see below). The status information word st_mode has the following bits: #define S_IFMT 0170000 /* type of file mask */ #define S_IFIFO 0010000 /* named pipe (fifo) */ #define S_IFCHR 0020000 /* character special */ #define S_IFDIR 0040000 /* directory */ #define S_IFBLK 0060000 /* block special */ #define S_IFREG 0100000 /* regular */ #define S_IFLNK 0120000 /* symbolic link */ #define S_IFSOCK 0140000 /* socket */ #define S_IFWHT 0160000 /* whiteout */ #define S_ISUID 0004000 /* set user id on execution */ #define S_ISGID 0002000 /* set group id on execution */ #define S_ISVTX 0001000 /* save swapped text even after use */ #define S_IRWXU 0000700 /* RWX mask for owner */ #define S_IRUSR 0000400 /* read permission, owner */ #define S_IWUSR 0000200 /* write permission, owner */ #define S_IXUSR 0000100 /* execute/search permission, owner */ #define S_IRWXG 0000070 /* RWX mask for group */ #define S_IRGRP 0000040 /* read permission, group */ #define S_IWGRP 0000020 /* write permission, group */ #define S_IXGRP 0000010 /* execute/search permission, group */ #define S_IRWXO 0000007 /* RWX mask for other */ #define S_IROTH 0000004 /* read permission, other */ #define S_IWOTH 0000002 /* write permission, other */ #define S_IXOTH 0000001 /* execute/search permission, other */ For a list of access modes, see <sys/stat.h>, access(2) and chmod(2). The following macros are available to test whether a st_mode value passed in the m argument corresponds to a file of the specified type: S_ISBLK(m) Test for a block special file. S_ISCHR(m) Test for a character special file. S_ISDIR(m) Test for a directory. S_ISFIFO(m) Test for a pipe or FIFO special file. S_ISLNK(m) Test for a symbolic link. S_ISREG(m) Test for a regular file. S_ISSOCK(m) Test for a socket. S_ISWHT(m) Test for a whiteout. The macros evaluate to a non-zero value if the test is true or to the value 0 if the test is false. RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, the value 0 is returned; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error. COMPATIBILITY Previous versions of the system used different types for the st_dev, st_uid, st_gid, st_rdev, st_size, st_blksize and st_blocks fields. ERRORS The stat() and lstat() system calls will fail if: [EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. [EFAULT] The sb or path argument points to an invalid address. [EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. [ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translat- ing the pathname. [ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters. [ENOENT] The named file does not exist. [ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory. [EOVERFLOW] The file size in bytes cannot be represented correctly in the structure pointed to by sb. The fstat() system call will fail if: [EBADF] The fd argument is not a valid open file descriptor. [EFAULT] The sb argument points to an invalid address. [EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. [EOVERFLOW] The file size in bytes cannot be represented correctly in the structure pointed to by sb. In addition to the errors returned by the lstat(), the fstatat() may fail if: [EBADF] The path argument does not specify an absolute path and the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor open for searching. [EINVAL] The value of the flag argument is not valid. [ENOTDIR] The path argument is not an absolute path and fd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with a directory. SEE ALSO access(2), chmod(2), chown(2), fhstat(2), statfs(2), utimes(2), symlink(7), sticky(8) STANDARDS The stat() and fstat() system calls are expected to conform to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 ("POSIX.1"). The fchownat() system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification. HISTORY The stat() and fstat() system calls appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX. The lstat() system call appeared in 4.2BSD. The fstatat() system call ap- peared in FreeBSD 8.0. BUGS Applying fstat() to a socket (and thus to a pipe) returns a zeroed buf- fer, except for the blocksize field, and a unique device and inode num- ber. BSD April 10, 2008 BSD
NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | COMPATIBILITY | ERRORS | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | HISTORY | BUGS
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