lstat(2) System Calls Manual lstat(2)
NAME
lstat - get symbolic link status
SYNOPSIS
PARAMETERS
The parameters for the function are as follows:
path is a pointer to a path name of any file within the mounted file system. All directories listed in the path name must be
searchable.
buf is a pointer to a structure where the file status information is stored.
DESCRIPTION
The function has the same effect as except when path refers to a symbolic link. In that case returns information about the link, while
returns information about the file the link references.
For symbolic links, the st_mode member will contain meaningful information when used with the file type macros, and the st_size member will
contain the length of the pathname contained in the symbolic link. File mode bits and the contents of the remaining members of the struc-
ture 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. If the chosen path name or file descriptor refers to a Multi-Level Directory (MLD), and the process does not have the mul-
tilevel effective privilege, the i-node number returned in st_ino is the i-node of the MLD itself.
The structure contains the following members:
dev_t st_dev; /* ID of device containing a */
/* directory entry for this file */
ino_t st_ino; /* Inode number */
short st_fstype; /* Type of filesystem this file */
/* is in; see sysfs(2) */
ushort st_mode; /* File type, attributes, and */
/* access control summary */
ushort st_basemode /* Permission bits (see chmod(1)) */
ushort st_nlink; /* Number of links */
uid_t st_uid; /* User ID of file owner */
gid_t st_gid; /* Group ID of file group */
dev_t st_rdev; /* Device ID; this entry defined */
/* only for char or blk spec files */
off_t st_size; /* File size (bytes) */
time_t st_atime; /* Time of last access */
time_t st_mtime; /* Last modification time */
time_t st_ctime; /* Last file status change time */
/* Measured in secs since */
/* 00:00:00 GMT, Jan 1, 1970 */
long st_blksize; /* File system block size */
uint st_acl:1; /* Set if the file has optional */
/* access control list entries */
/* HFS File Systems only */
uint st_aclv:1; /* Set if the file has optional */
/* access control list entries */
/* JFS File Systems only */
(Note that the position of items in this list does not necessarily reflect the order of the members in the structure.)
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, returns Otherwise, it returns and sets to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The function will fail if:
[EACCES] A component of the path prefix denies search permission.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path.
[ENAMETOOLONG] The length of a pathname exceeds or the pathname component is longer than
[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] A 32-bit application is making this call on a file where the or other field(s) would need to hold a 64-bit
value.
[EFAULT] buf points to an invalid address. The reliable detection of this error is implementation dependent.
The function may fail if:
[ENAMETOOLONG] The pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result with a length exceeding
NETWORKING FEATURES
NFS
The st_basemode, st_acl and st_aclv fields are zero on files accessed remotely. The st_acl field is applicable to HFS File Systems only.
The st_aclv field is applicable to JFS File Systems only.
WARNINGS
Access Control Lists - HFS and JFS File Systems Only
Access control list descriptions in this entry apply only to HFS and JFS file systems on standard HP-UX operating systems.
For 32-bit applications, will be truncated to its least significant 32-bits for filesystems that use 64-bit values.
DEPENDENCIES (CD-ROM)
The st_uid and st_gid fields are set to if they are not specified on the disk for a given file.
AUTHOR
and were developed by AT&T. was developed by the University of California, Berkeley.
SEE ALSO
touch(1), acl(2), chmod(2), chown(2), creat(2), fstat(2), link(2), lstat64(2), mknod(2), pipe(2), read(2), readlink(2), rename(2),
setacl(2), stat(2), symlink(2), sysfs(2), time(2), truncate(2), unlink(2), utime(2), write(2), acl(5), aclv(5), privileges(5), stat(5),
<sys/stat.h>.
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
lstat(): AES, SVID3
CHANGE HISTORY
First released in Issue 4, Version 2.
lstat(2)