| stat(2) | System Calls Manual | stat(2) |
stat, fstat, lstat, fstatat - get file status
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
#include <sys/stat.h>
int stat(const char *restrict pathname,
struct stat *restrict statbuf);
int fstat(int fd, struct stat *statbuf);
int lstat(const char *restrict pathname,
struct stat *restrict statbuf);
#include <fcntl.h> /* Definition of AT_* constants */ #include <sys/stat.h>
int fstatat(int dirfd, const char *restrict pathname,
struct stat *restrict statbuf, int flags);
lstat():
/* Since glibc 2.20 */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
|| _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
|| /* Since glibc 2.10: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
|| /* glibc 2.19 and earlier */ _BSD_SOURCE
fstatat():
Since glibc 2.10:
_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
Before glibc 2.10:
_ATFILE_SOURCE
These functions return information about a file, in the buffer pointed to by statbuf. No permissions are required on the file itself, but—in the case of stat(), fstatat(), and lstat()—execute (search) permission is required on all of the directories in pathname that lead to the file.
stat() and fstatat() retrieve information about the file pointed to by pathname; the differences for fstatat() are described below.
lstat() is identical to stat(), except that if pathname is a symbolic link, then it returns information about the link itself, not the file that the link refers to.
fstat() is identical to stat(), except that the file about which information is to be retrieved is specified by the file descriptor fd.
All of these system calls return a stat structure (see stat(3type)).
Note: for performance and simplicity reasons, different fields in the stat structure may contain state information from different moments during the execution of the system call. For example, if st_mode or st_uid is changed by another process by calling chmod(2) or chown(2), stat() might return the old st_mode together with the new st_uid, or the old st_uid together with the new st_mode.
The fstatat() system call is a more general interface for accessing file information which can still provide exactly the behavior of each of stat(), lstat(), and fstat().
If the pathname given in pathname is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory referred to by the file descriptor dirfd (rather than relative to the current working directory of the calling process, as is done by stat() and lstat() for a relative pathname).
If pathname is relative and dirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then pathname is interpreted relative to the current working directory of the calling process (like stat() and lstat()).
If pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.
flags can either be 0, or include one or more of the following flags ORed:
See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for fstatat().
On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.
POSIX.1-2008.
According to POSIX.1-2001, lstat() on a symbolic link need return valid information only in the st_size field and the file type of the st_mode field of the stat structure. POSIX.1-2008 tightens the specification, requiring lstat() to return valid information in all fields except the mode bits in st_mode.
Use of the st_blocks and st_blksize fields may be less portable. (They were introduced in BSD. The interpretation differs between systems, and possibly on a single system when NFS mounts are involved.)
Over time, increases in the size of the stat structure have led to three successive versions of stat(): sys_stat() (slot __NR_oldstat), sys_newstat() (slot __NR_stat), and sys_stat64() (slot __NR_stat64) on 32-bit platforms such as i386. The first two versions were already present in Linux 1.0 (albeit with different names); the last was added in Linux 2.4. Similar remarks apply for fstat() and lstat().
The kernel-internal versions of the stat structure dealt with by the different versions are, respectively:
The glibc stat() wrapper function hides these details from applications, invoking the most recent version of the system call provided by the kernel, and repacking the returned information if required for old binaries.
On modern 64-bit systems, life is simpler: there is a single stat() system call and the kernel deals with a stat structure that contains fields of a sufficient size.
The underlying system call employed by the glibc fstatat() wrapper function is actually called fstatat64() or, on some architectures, newfstatat().
The following program calls lstat() and displays selected fields in the returned stat structure.
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/sysmacros.h>
#include <time.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
struct stat sb;
if (argc != 2) {
fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <pathname>\n", argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
if (lstat(argv[1], &sb) == -1) {
perror("lstat");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("ID of containing device: [%x,%x]\n",
major(sb.st_dev),
minor(sb.st_dev));
printf("File type: ");
switch (sb.st_mode & S_IFMT) {
case S_IFBLK: printf("block device\n"); break;
case S_IFCHR: printf("character device\n"); break;
case S_IFDIR: printf("directory\n"); break;
case S_IFIFO: printf("FIFO/pipe\n"); break;
case S_IFLNK: printf("symlink\n"); break;
case S_IFREG: printf("regular file\n"); break;
case S_IFSOCK: printf("socket\n"); break;
default: printf("unknown?\n"); break;
}
printf("I-node number: %ju\n", (uintmax_t) sb.st_ino);
printf("Mode: %jo (octal)\n",
(uintmax_t) sb.st_mode);
printf("Link count: %ju\n", (uintmax_t) sb.st_nlink);
printf("Ownership: UID=%ju GID=%ju\n",
(uintmax_t) sb.st_uid, (uintmax_t) sb.st_gid);
printf("Preferred I/O block size: %jd bytes\n",
(intmax_t) sb.st_blksize);
printf("File size: %jd bytes\n",
(intmax_t) sb.st_size);
printf("Blocks allocated: %jd\n",
(intmax_t) sb.st_blocks);
printf("Last status change: %s", ctime(&sb.st_ctime));
printf("Last file access: %s", ctime(&sb.st_atime));
printf("Last file modification: %s", ctime(&sb.st_mtime));
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
ls(1), stat(1), access(2), chmod(2), chown(2), readlink(2), statx(2), utime(2), stat(3type), capabilities(7), inode(7), symlink(7)
| 2023-05-03 | Linux man-pages 6.05.01 |