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Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)stat.2 8.4 (Berkeley) 5/1/95 .\" $FreeBSD$ .\" .Dd February 15, 2002 .Dt STAT 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm stat , .Nm lstat , .Nm fstat .Nd get file status .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/types.h .In sys/stat.h .Ft int .Fn stat "const char *path" "struct stat *sb" .Ft int .Fn lstat "const char *path" "struct stat *sb" .Ft int .Fn fstat "int fd" "struct stat *sb" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn stat system call obtains information about the file pointed to by .Fa path . Read, write or execute permission of the named file is not required, but all directories listed in the path name leading to the file must be searchable. .Pp The .Fn lstat system call is like .Fn stat except in the case where the named file is a symbolic link, in which case .Fn lstat returns information about the link, while .Fn stat returns information about the file the link references. .Pp The .Fn fstat system call obtains the same information about an open file known by the file descriptor .Fa fd . .Pp The .Fa sb argument is a pointer to a .Vt stat structure as defined by .In sys/stat.h and into which information is placed concerning the file. .Pp The time-related fields of .Fa struct stat are as follows: .Bl -tag -width ".Va st_birthtime" .It Va st_atime Time when file data last accessed. Changed by the .Xr mknod 2 , .Xr utimes 2 and .Xr read 2 system calls. .It Va st_mtime Time when file data last modified. Changed by the .Xr mknod 2 , .Xr utimes 2 and .Xr write 2 system calls. .It Va st_ctime Time when file status was last changed (inode data modification). Changed by the .Xr chmod 2 , .Xr chown 2 , .Xr link 2 , .Xr mknod 2 , .Xr rename 2 , .Xr unlink 2 , .Xr utimes 2 and .Xr write 2 system calls. .It Va st_birthtime Time when the inode was created. .El .Pp If .Dv _POSIX_SOURCE is not defined, the time-related fields are defined as: .Bd -literal #ifndef _POSIX_SOURCE #define st_atime st_atimespec.tv_sec #define st_mtime st_mtimespec.tv_sec #define st_ctime st_ctimespec.tv_sec #endif .Ed .Pp The size-related fields of the .Vt "struct stat" are as follows: .Bl -tag -width XXXst_blksize .It st_blksize The optimal I/O block size for the file. .It st_blocks The actual number of blocks allocated for the file in 512-byte units. As short symbolic links are stored in the inode, this number may be zero. .El .Pp The status information word .Fa st_mode has the following bits: .Bd -literal #define S_IFMT 0170000 /* type of file */ #define S_IFIFO 0010000 /* named pipe (fifo) */ #define S_IFCHR 0020000 /* character special */ #define S_IFDIR 0040000 /* directory */ #define S_IFBLK 0060000 /* block special */ #define S_IFREG 0100000 /* regular */ #define S_IFLNK 0120000 /* symbolic link */ #define S_IFSOCK 0140000 /* socket */ #define S_IFWHT 0160000 /* whiteout */ #define S_ISUID 0004000 /* set user id on execution */ #define S_ISGID 0002000 /* set group id on execution */ #define S_ISVTX 0001000 /* save swapped text even after use */ #define S_IRUSR 0000400 /* read permission, owner */ #define S_IWUSR 0000200 /* write permission, owner */ #define S_IXUSR 0000100 /* execute/search permission, owner */ .Ed .Pp For a list of access modes, see .In sys/stat.h , .Xr access 2 and .Xr chmod 2 . .Sh RETURN VALUES .Rv -std .Sh COMPATIBILITY Previous versions of the system used different types for the .Li st_dev , .Li st_uid , .Li st_gid , .Li st_rdev , .Li st_size , .Li st_blksize and .Li st_blocks fields. .Sh ERRORS The .Fn stat and .Fn lstat system calls will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix. .It Bq Er EFAULT The .Fa sb or .Fa path argument points to an invalid address. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .It Bq Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname. .It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters. .It Bq Er ENOENT The named file does not exist. .It Bq Er ENOTDIR A component of the path prefix is not a directory. .It Bq Er EOVERFLOW The file size in bytes cannot be represented correctly in the structure pointed to by .Fa sb . .El .Pp .Bl -tag -width Er The .Fn fstat system call will fail if: .It Bq Er EBADF The .Fa fd argument is not a valid open file descriptor. .It Bq Er EFAULT The .Fa sb argument points to an invalid address. .It Bq Er EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system. .It Bq Er EOVERFLOW The file size in bytes cannot be represented correctly in the structure pointed to by .Fa sb . .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr access 2 , .Xr chmod 2 , .Xr chown 2 , .Xr utimes 2 , .Xr symlink 7 .Sh BUGS Applying .Fn fstat to a socket (and thus to a pipe) returns a zeroed buffer, except for the blocksize field, and a unique device and inode number. .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn stat and .Fn fstat system calls are expected to conform to .St -p1003.1-90 . .Sh HISTORY The .Fn stat and .Fn fstat system calls appeared in .At v7 . The .Fn lstat system call appeared in .Bx 4.2 .