FreeBSD Man Pages

lstat(2)

NAME

     stat, lstat, fstat -- 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);

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
     required, 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 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-

     #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 */
     #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_IRUSR  0000400  /* read permission, owner */
     #define S_IWUSR  0000200  /* write permission, owner */
     #define S_IXUSR  0000100  /* execute/search permission, owner */

     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.

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.

SEE ALSO

     access(2), chmod(2), chown(2), utimes(2), symlink(7), sticky(8)

BUGS

     Applying fstat() to a socket (and thus to a pipe) returns a zeroed
     buffer, except for the blocksize field, and a unique device and inode
     number.

STANDARDS

     The stat() and fstat() system calls are expected to conform to ISO/IEC
     9945-1:1990 (``POSIX.1'').

HISTORY

SPONSORED LINKS