LSTAT(3P)                                                    POSIX Programmer's Manual                                                   LSTAT(3P)

PROLOG

       This  manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the correspond-
       ing Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME

       lstat - get symbolic link status

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/stat.h>

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

DESCRIPTION

       The lstat() function shall be equivalent to stat(), except when path refers to a symbolic link. In that case lstat() shall return  informa-
       tion about the link, while stat() shall return information about the file the link references.

       For  symbolic  links,  the  st_mode member shall contain meaningful information when used with the file type macros, and the st_size member
       shall contain the length of the pathname contained in the symbolic link. File mode bits and the contents of the remaining  members  of  the
       stat  structure are unspecified.  The value returned in the st_size member is the length of the contents of the symbolic link, and does not
       count any trailing null.

RETURN VALUE

       Upon successful completion, lstat() shall return 0. Otherwise, it shall return -1 and set errno to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       The lstat() function shall fail if:

       EACCES A component of the path prefix denies search permission.

       EIO    An error occurred while reading from the file system.

       ELOOP  A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the path argument.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX} or a pathname component is longer than {NAME_MAX}.

       ENOTDIR
              A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

       ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an empty string.

       EOVERFLOW
              The file size in bytes or the number of blocks allocated to the file or the file serial number cannot be  represented  correctly  in
              the structure pointed to by buf.

       The lstat() function may fail if:

       ELOOP  More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the path argument.

       ENAMETOOLONG
              As  a  result  of  encountering  a  symbolic  link in resolution of the path argument, the length of the substituted pathname string
              exceeded {PATH_MAX}.

       EOVERFLOW
              One of the members is too large to store into the structure pointed to by the buf argument.

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

   Obtaining Symbolic Link Status Information
       The following example shows how to obtain status information for a symbolic link named /modules/pass1. The  structure  variable  buffer  is
       defined for the stat structure. If the path argument specified the filename for the file pointed to by the symbolic link ( /home/cnd/mod1),
       the results of calling the function would be the same as those returned by a call to the stat() function.

              #include <sys/stat.h>

              struct stat buffer;
              int status;
              ...
              status = lstat("/modules/pass1", &buffer);

APPLICATION USAGE

       None.

RATIONALE

       The lstat() function is not required to update the time-related fields if the named file is not a symbolic link. While the st_uid,  st_gid,
       st_atime,  st_mtime,  and st_ctime members of the stat structure may apply to a symbolic link, they are not required to do so. No functions
       in IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 are required to maintain any of these time fields.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       fstat(), readlink(), stat(), symlink(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/stat.h>

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technol-
       ogy -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
       Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and  the  original  IEEE
       and  The  Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained
       online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE
/The Open Group                                                    2003                                                              LSTAT(3P)