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stat(2) System Calls Manual stat(2) NAME stat, fstat, lstat - Provides information about a file SYNOPSIS #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> int stat( const char *path, struct stat *buffer ); int lstat( const char *path, struct stat *buffer ); int fstat( int filedes, struct stat *buffer ); STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: fstat(): POSIX.1, XPG4, XPG4-UNIX lstat(): POSIX.1, XPG4-UNIX stat(): POSIX.1, XPG4 Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. PARAMETERS Specifies the pathname identifying the file. Specifies the file de- scriptor identifying the open file. Points to the stat structure in which information is returned. The stat structure is described in the sys/stat.h header file. DESCRIPTION The stat() function obtains information about the file named by the path parameter. Read, write, or execute permission for the named file is not required, but all directories listed in the pathname leading to the file must be searchable. The file information is written to the area specified by the buffer parameter, which is a pointer to a stat structure, defined in sys/stat.h. The values of the stat structure's mode_t member are defined in <sys/mode.h>. The fstat() function is like the stat() function except that the infor- mation obtained is about an open file referenced by the filedes parame- ter. The lstat() function is like the stat() function except in the case where the named file is a symbolic link. In this case, the lstat() function returns information about the link, while the stat() and fs- tat() functions return information about the file the link references. In the case of a symbolic link, the stat() functions set the st_size field of the stat structure to the length of the symbolic link, and sets the st_mode field to indicate the file type. The stat(), lstat(), and fstat() functions update any time-related fields associated with the file before writing into the stat structure. NOTES Two structure members in <stat.h> uniquely identify a file in a file system: st_ino, the file serial number, and st_dev, the device id for the directory that contains the file. [DIGITAL] However, in the rare case when a user application has been deleting open files, and a file serial number is reused, a third structure member in <stat.h>, the file generation number, is needed to uniquely identify a file. This member, st_gen is used in addition to st_ino and st_dev. RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, a value of 0 (zero) is returned. Other- wise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS If the stat() or lstat() function fails, errno may be set to one of the following values: Search permission is denied for a component of the path parameter. Either the buffer parameter or the path parameter points to a location outside of the allocated address space of the process. Too many links were encountered in translating path. The length of the path parameter exceeds PATH_MAX or a pathname component is longer than NAME_MAX. The file named by the path parameter does not exist or is an empty string. A component of the path parameter is not a directory. [Digital] For NFS file access, if the stat() or lstat() function fails, errno may also be set to one of the following values: The file position pointer associated with the filedes parameter was negative. Indicates either that the request was for a write access to a file but the speci- fied filename was actually a directory, or that the function was trying to rename a directory as a file. Indicates either that the system file table is full, or that there are too many files currently open in the system. Indicates a stale NFS file handle. An opened file was deleted by the server or another client; a client cannot open a file because the server has unmounted or unexported the remote directory; or the di- rectory that contains an opened file was either unmounted or unexported by the server. If the fstat() function fails, errno may be set to one of the following values: The filedes parameter is not a valid file descriptor. The buffer parameter points to a location outside of the allocated address space of the process. RELATED INFORMATION Functions: chmod(2), chown(2), link(2), mknod(2), open(2), pipe(2), symlink(2), utime(2) Standards: standards(5) delim off stat(2)