File::stat(3pm) 					 Perl Programmers Reference Guide					   File::stat(3pm)

NAME

       File::stat - by-name interface to Perl's built-in stat() functions

SYNOPSIS

	use File::stat;
	$st = stat($file) or die "No $file: $!";
	if ( ($st->mode & 0111) && $st->nlink > 1) ) {
	    print "$file is executable with lotsa links
";
	}

	use File::stat qw(:FIELDS);
	stat($file) or die "No $file: $!";
	if ( ($st_mode & 0111) && $st_nlink > 1) ) {
	    print "$file is executable with lotsa links
";
	}

DESCRIPTION

       This module's default exports override the core stat() and lstat() functions, replacing them with versions that return "File::stat"
       objects.  This object has methods that return the similarly named structure field name from the stat(2) function; namely, dev, ino, mode,
       nlink, uid, gid, rdev, size, atime, mtime, ctime, blksize, and blocks.

       You may also import all the structure fields directly into your namespace as regular variables using the :FIELDS import tag.  (Note that
       this still overrides your stat() and lstat() functions.)  Access these fields as variables named with a preceding "st_" in front their
       method names.  Thus, "$stat_obj->dev()" corresponds to $st_dev if you import the fields.

       To access this functionality without the core overrides, pass the "use" an empty import list, and then access function functions with their
       full qualified names.  On the other hand, the built-ins are still available via the "CORE::" pseudo-package.

BUGS

       As of Perl 5.8.0 after using this module you cannot use the implicit $_ or the special filehandle "_" with stat() or lstat(), trying to do
       so leads into strange errors.  The workaround is for $_ to be explicit

	   my $stat_obj = stat $_;

       and for "_" to explicitly populate the object using the unexported and undocumented populate() function with CORE::stat():

	   my $stat_obj = File::stat::populate(CORE::stat(_));

NOTE

       While this class is currently implemented using the Class::Struct module to build a struct-like class, you shouldn't rely upon this.

AUTHOR

       Tom Christiansen

perl v5.8.0							    2002-06-01							   File::stat(3pm)