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 standards as follows:

       fstat():  POSIX.1, XSH5.0

       lstat():  POSIX.1, XSH5.0

       stat():	POSIX.1, XSH5.0

       Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags.

PARAMETERS

       Specifies  the  pathname  identifying  the file.  Specifies the file descriptor 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 member, mode_t, are defined in <sys/mode.h>.

       The fstat() function is like the stat() function except that the information obtained is about an  open	file  referenced  by  the  filedes
       parameter.

       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 fstat() 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.

       [Tru64 UNIX]  When run on a file in an AdvFS clone fileset, the value returned for st_blocks is the number of blocks in the  original  file
       at the time the clone fileset was created.

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.

       [Tru64 UNIX]  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.  Otherwise, 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.  An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.  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.  [Tru64 UNIX]  The structure pointed to by the  buffer  argu-
       ment cannot correctly represent the value to be returned.

	      This  error  occurs in applications compiled either on a system earlier than Tru64 UNIX Version 5.0 or on any system while using the
	      __V40_OBJ_COMPAT compiler macro.	These applications use a <statfs> structure for the for st_blocks fields that  is  not	compatible
	      with the same structure in Tru64 UNIX Version 5.0.

       [Tru64  UNIX]  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  specified  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 directory 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.  An I/O error occurred while reading from the
       file system.  [Tru64 UNIX]  The structure pointed to by the buffer argument cannot correctly represent the value to be returned.

	      This error occurs in applications compiled either on a system earlier than Tru64 UNIX Version 5.0 or or on any  system  while  using
	      the  __V40_OBJ_COMPAT  compiler macro.  These applications use a <statfs> structure for st_blocks fields that is not compatible with
	      the same structure in Tru64 UNIX Version 5.0 or later.

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)