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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
     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 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
     appeared 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
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