Linux and UNIX Man Pages

Linux & Unix Commands - Search Man Pages

stat(2) [v7 man page]

STAT(2) 							System Calls Manual							   STAT(2)

NAME
stat, fstat - get file status SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> stat(name, buf) char *name; struct stat *buf; fstat(fildes, buf) struct stat *buf; DESCRIPTION
Stat obtains detailed information about a named file. Fstat obtains the same information about an open file known by the file descriptor from a successful open, creat, dup or pipe(2) call. Name points to a null-terminated string naming a file; buf is the address of a buffer into which information is placed concerning the file. It is unnecessary to have any permissions at all with respect to the file, but all directories leading to the file must be searchable. The layout of the structure pointed to by buf as defined in <stat.h> is given below. St_mode is encoded according to the `#define' statements. The mode bits 0000070 and 0000007 encode group and others permissions (see chmod(2)). The defined types, ino_t, off_t, time_t, name vari- ous width integer values; dev_t encodes major and minor device numbers; their exact definitions are in the include file <sys/types.h> (see types(5). When fildes is associated with a pipe, fstat reports an ordinary file with restricted permissions. The size is the number of bytes queued in the pipe. st_atime is the file was last read. For reasons of efficiency, it is not set when a directory is searched, although this would be more logical. st_mtime is the time the file was last written or created. It is not set by changes of owner, group, link count, or mode. st_ctime is set both both by writing and changing the i-node. SEE ALSO
ls(1), filsys(5) DIAGNOSTICS
Zero is returned if a status is available; -1 if the file cannot be found. ASSEMBLER
(stat = 18.) sys stat; name; buf (fstat = 28.) (file descriptor in r0) sys fstat; buf STAT(2)

Check Out this Related Man Page

FSTAT(P)						     POSIX Programmer's Manual							  FSTAT(P)

NAME
fstat - get file status SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h> int fstat(int fildes, struct stat *buf); DESCRIPTION
The fstat() function shall obtain information about an open file associated with the file descriptor fildes, and shall write it to the area pointed to by buf. If fildes references a shared memory object, the implementation shall update in the stat structure pointed to by the buf argument only the st_uid, st_gid, st_size, and st_mode fields, and only the S_IRUSR, S_IWUSR, S_IRGRP, S_IWGRP, S_IROTH, and S_IWOTH file permission bits need be valid. The implementation may update other fields and flags. If fildes references a typed memory object, the implementation shall update in the stat structure pointed to by the buf argument only the st_uid, st_gid, st_size, and st_mode fields, and only the S_IRUSR, S_IWUSR, S_IRGRP, S_IWGRP, S_IROTH, and S_IWOTH file permission bits need be valid. The implementation may update other fields and flags. The buf argument is a pointer to a stat structure, as defined in <sys/stat.h>, into which information is placed concerning the file. The structure members st_mode, st_ino, st_dev, st_uid, st_gid, st_atime, st_ctime, and st_mtime shall have meaningful values for all other file types defined in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001. The value of the member st_nlink shall be set to the number of links to the file. An implementation that provides additional or alternative file access control mechanisms may, under implementation-defined conditions, cause fstat() to fail. The fstat() function shall update any time-related fields as described in the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 4.7, File Times Update, before writing into the stat structure. RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned. Otherwise, -1 shall be returned and errno set to indicate the error. ERRORS
The fstat() function shall fail if: EBADF The fildes argument is not a valid file descriptor. EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system. 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 fstat() function may fail if: EOVERFLOW One of the values is too large to store into the structure pointed to by the buf argument. The following sections are informative. EXAMPLES
Obtaining File Status Information The following example shows how to obtain file status information for a file named /home/cnd/mod1. The structure variable buffer is defined for the stat structure. The /home/cnd/mod1 file is opened with read/write privileges and is passed to the open file descriptor fildes. #include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/stat.h> #include <fcntl.h> struct stat buffer; int status; ... fildes = open("/home/cnd/mod1", O_RDWR); status = fstat(fildes, &buffer); APPLICATION USAGE
None. RATIONALE
None. FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None. SEE ALSO
lstat() , stat() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/stat.h>, <sys/types.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 FSTAT(P)
Man Page