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STAT(2)			   Linux Programmer's Manual		       STAT(2)

NAME
       stat, fstat, lstat - get file status

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <sys/stat.h>
       #include <unistd.h>

       int stat(const char *path, struct stat *buf);
       int fstat(int filedes, struct stat *buf);
       int lstat(const char *path, struct stat *buf);

DESCRIPTION
       These  functions	 return	 information about a file.  No permissions are
       required on the file itself, but — in the case of stat() and lstat()  —
       execute	(search)  permission  is required on all of the directories in
       path that lead to the file.

       stat() stats the file pointed to by path and fills in buf.

       lstat() is identical to stat(), except that if path is a symbolic link,
       then the link itself is stat-ed, not the file that it refers to.

       fstat()	is  identical to stat(), except that the file to be stat-ed is
       specified by the file descriptor filedes.

       All of these system calls return a stat structure, which	 contains  the
       following fields:

	 struct stat {
	     dev_t     st_dev;	   /* ID of device containing file */
	     ino_t     st_ino;	   /* inode number */
	     mode_t    st_mode;	   /* protection */
	     nlink_t   st_nlink;   /* number of hard links */
	     uid_t     st_uid;	   /* user ID of owner */
	     gid_t     st_gid;	   /* group ID of owner */
	     dev_t     st_rdev;	   /* device ID (if special file) */
	     off_t     st_size;	   /* total size, in bytes */
	     blksize_t st_blksize; /* blocksize for filesystem I/O */
	     blkcnt_t  st_blocks;  /* number of blocks allocated */
	     time_t    st_atime;   /* time of last access */
	     time_t    st_mtime;   /* time of last modification */
	     time_t    st_ctime;   /* time of last status change */
	 };

       The st_dev field describes the device on which this file resides.

       The  st_rdev  field  describes the device that this file (inode) repre‐
       sents.

       The st_size field gives the size of the file (if it is a	 regular  file
       or  a  symbolic link) in bytes.	The size of a symlink is the length of
       the pathname it contains, without a trailing null byte.

       The st_blocks field indicates the number of  blocks  allocated  to  the
       file, 512-byte units.  (This may be smaller than st_size/512, for exam‐
       ple, when the file has holes.)

       The st_blksize field gives the "preferred" blocksize for efficient file
       system  I/O.  (Writing to a file in smaller chunks may cause an ineffi‐
       cient read-modify-rewrite.)

       Not all of the Linux filesystems implement  all	of  the	 time  fields.
       Some  file system types allow mounting in such a way that file accesses
       do not cause an	update	of  the	 st_atime  field.  (See	 `noatime'  in
       mount(8).)

       The  field  st_atime  is	 changed  by file accesses, e.g. by execve(2),
       mknod(2), pipe(2), utime(2) and read(2)	(of  more  than	 zero  bytes).
       Other routines, like mmap(2), may or may not update st_atime.

       The  field st_mtime is changed by file modifications, e.g. by mknod(2),
       truncate(2), utime(2) and write(2) (of more than	 zero  bytes).	 More‐
       over, st_mtime of a directory is changed by the creation or deletion of
       files in that directory.	 The st_mtime field is not changed for changes
       in owner, group, hard link count, or mode.

       The  field  st_ctime is changed by writing or by setting inode informa‐
       tion (i.e., owner, group, link count, mode, etc.).

       The following POSIX macros are defined to check the file type using the
       st_mode field:

	      S_ISREG(m)  is it a regular file?

	      S_ISDIR(m)  directory?

	      S_ISCHR(m)  character device?

	      S_ISBLK(m)  block device?

	      S_ISFIFO(m) FIFO (named pipe)?

	      S_ISLNK(m)  symbolic link? (Not in POSIX.1-1996.)

	      S_ISSOCK(m) socket? (Not in POSIX.1-1996.)

       The following flags are defined for the st_mode field:

       S_IFMT	  0170000   bitmask for the file type bitfields
       S_IFSOCK	  0140000   socket
       S_IFLNK	  0120000   symbolic link
       S_IFREG	  0100000   regular file
       S_IFBLK	  0060000   block device
       S_IFDIR	  0040000   directory
       S_IFCHR	  0020000   character device
       S_IFIFO	  0010000   FIFO
       S_ISUID	  0004000   set UID bit
       S_ISGID	  0002000   set-group-ID bit (see below)
       S_ISVTX	  0001000   sticky bit (see below)
       S_IRWXU	  00700	    mask for file owner permissions
       S_IRUSR	  00400	    owner has read permission
       S_IWUSR	  00200	    owner has write permission
       S_IXUSR	  00100	    owner has execute permission
       S_IRWXG	  00070	    mask for group permissions
       S_IRGRP	  00040	    group has read permission
       S_IWGRP	  00020	    group has write permission
       S_IXGRP	  00010	    group has execute permission
       S_IRWXO	  00007	    mask for permissions for others (not in group)
       S_IROTH	  00004	    others have read permission
       S_IWOTH	  00002	    others have write permission
       S_IXOTH	  00001	    others have execute permission

       The  set-group-ID bit (S_ISGID) has several special uses.  For a direc‐
       tory it indicates that BSD semantics is to be used for that  directory:
       files created there inherit their group ID from the directory, not from
       the effective group ID of the creating process, and directories created
       there will also get the S_ISGID bit set.	 For a file that does not have
       the group execution bit (S_IXGRP) set, the set-group-ID	bit  indicates
       mandatory file/record locking.

       The  `sticky'  bit  (S_ISVTX)  on a directory means that a file in that
       directory can be renamed or deleted only by the owner of the  file,  by
       the owner of the directory, and by a privileged process.

LINUX NOTES
       Since  kernel 2.5.48, the stat structure supports nanosecond resolution
       for the three file timestamp fields.  Glibc exposes the nanosecond com‐
       ponent of each field using names either of the form st_atim.tv_nsec, if
       the _BSD_SOURCE or _SVID_SOURCE feature test macro is  defined,	or  of
       the  form st_atimensec, if neither of these macros is defined.  On file
       systems that do not support  sub-second	timestamps,  these  nanosecond
       fields are returned with the value 0.

       For  most  files	 under the /proc directory, stat() does not return the
       file size in the st_size field; instead the field is returned with  the
       value 0.

RETURN VALUE
       On  success,  zero is returned.	On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
       set appropriately.

ERRORS
       EACCES Search permission is denied for one of the  directories  in  the
	      path prefix of path.  (See also path_resolution(2).)

       EBADF  filedes is bad.

       EFAULT Bad address.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links encountered while traversing the path.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      File name too long.

       ENOENT A	 component  of the path path does not exist, or the path is an
	      empty string.

       ENOMEM Out of memory (i.e. kernel memory).

       ENOTDIR
	      A component of the path is not a directory.

CONFORMING TO
       These system calls conform to SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

       Use of the st_blocks and st_blksize fields may be less portable.	 (They
       were  introduced	 in  BSD.  The interpretation differs between systems,
       and possibly on a single system when NFS mounts are involved.)

       POSIX  does  not	 describe  the	S_IFMT,	 S_IFSOCK,  S_IFLNK,  S_IFREG,
       S_IFBLK,	 S_IFDIR,  S_IFCHR, S_IFIFO, S_ISVTX bits, but instead demands
       the use of the macros S_ISDIR(), etc.  The S_ISLNK and S_ISSOCK	macros
       are not in POSIX.1-1996, but both are present in POSIX.1-2001; the for‐
       mer is from SVID 4, the latter from SUSv2.

       Unix V7 (and later systems) had S_IREAD, S_IWRITE, S_IEXEC, where POSIX
       prescribes the synonyms S_IRUSR, S_IWUSR, S_IXUSR.

OTHER SYSTEMS
       Values that have been (or are) in use on various systems:

       hex    name	 ls   octal    description

       f000   S_IFMT	      170000   mask for file type
       0000		      000000   SCO out-of-service inode, BSD unknown type
				       SVID-v2 and XPG2 have both 0 and 0100000 for ordinary file
       1000   S_IFIFO	 p|   010000   FIFO (named pipe)
       2000   S_IFCHR	 c    020000   character special (V7)
       3000   S_IFMPC	      030000   multiplexed character special (V7)
       4000   S_IFDIR	 d/   040000   directory (V7)
       5000   S_IFNAM	      050000   XENIX named special file
				       with two subtypes, distinguished by st_rdev values 1, 2:
       0001   S_INSEM	 s    000001   XENIX semaphore subtype of IFNAM
       0002   S_INSHD	 m    000002   XENIX shared data subtype of IFNAM
       6000   S_IFBLK	 b    060000   block special (V7)
       7000   S_IFMPB	      070000   multiplexed block special (V7)
       8000   S_IFREG	 -    100000   regular (V7)
       9000   S_IFCMP	      110000   VxFS compressed
       9000   S_IFNWK	 n    110000   network special (HP-UX)
       a000   S_IFLNK	 l@   120000   symbolic link (BSD)
       b000   S_IFSHAD	      130000   Solaris shadow inode for ACL (not seen by userspace)
       c000   S_IFSOCK	 s=   140000   socket (BSD; also "S_IFSOC" on VxFS)
       d000   S_IFDOOR	 D>   150000   Solaris door
       e000   S_IFWHT	 w%   160000   BSD whiteout (not used for inode)

       0200   S_ISVTX	      001000   `sticky bit': save swapped text even after use (V7)
				       reserved (SVID-v2)
				       On non-directories: don't cache this file (SunOS)
				       On directories: restricted deletion flag (SVID-v4.2)
       0400   S_ISGID	      002000   set-group-ID on execution (V7)
				       for directories: use BSD semantics for propagation of GID
       0400   S_ENFMT	      002000   SysV file locking enforcement (shared with S_ISGID)
       0800   S_ISUID	      004000   set-user-ID on execution (V7)
       0800   S_CDF	      004000   directory is a context dependent file (HP-UX)

       A sticky command appeared in Version 32V AT&T UNIX.

SEE ALSO
       access(2), chmod(2), chown(2), fstatat(2), readlink(2), utime(2), capa‐
       bilities(7)

Linux 2.6.7			  2004-06-23			       STAT(2)
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