stat(2)


NAME

   stat, fstat, lstat, fstatat - get file status

SYNOPSIS

   #include <sys/types.h>
   #include <sys/stat.h>
   #include <unistd.h>

   int stat(const char *pathname, struct stat *buf);
   int fstat(int fd, struct stat *buf);
   int lstat(const char *pathname, struct stat *buf);

   #include <fcntl.h>           /* Definition of AT_* constants */
   #include <sys/stat.h>

   int fstatat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, struct stat *buf,
               int flags);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

   lstat():
       /* glibc 2.19 and earlier */ _BSD_SOURCE
           || /* Since glibc 2.20 */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
           || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
           || /* Since glibc 2.10: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

   fstatat():
       Since glibc 2.10:
           _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
       Before glibc 2.10:
           _ATFILE_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

   These  functions return information about a file, in the buffer pointed
   to by buf.  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 it 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, which  contains  the
   following fields:

       struct stat {
           dev_t     st_dev;         /* ID of device containing file */
           ino_t     st_ino;         /* inode number */
           mode_t    st_mode;        /* file type and mode */
           nlink_t   st_nlink;       /* number of hard links */
           uid_t     st_uid;         /* user ID of owner */
           gid_t     st_gid;         /* group ID of owner */
           dev_t     st_rdev;        /* device ID (if special file) */
           off_t     st_size;        /* total size, in bytes */
           blksize_t st_blksize;     /* blocksize for filesystem I/O */
           blkcnt_t  st_blocks;      /* number of 512B blocks allocated */

           /* Since Linux 2.6, the kernel supports nanosecond
              precision for the following timestamp fields.
              For the details before Linux 2.6, see NOTES. */

           struct timespec st_atim;  /* time of last access */
           struct timespec st_mtim;  /* time of last modification */
           struct timespec st_ctim;  /* time of last status change */

       #define st_atime st_atim.tv_sec      /* Backward compatibility */
       #define st_mtime st_mtim.tv_sec
       #define st_ctime st_ctim.tv_sec
       };

   Note:  the order of fields in the stat structure varies somewhat across
   architectures.  In addition, the definition above  does  not  show  the
   padding  bytes  that  may  be  present  between  some fields on various
   architectures.  Consult the glibc and kernel source code if you need to
   know the details.

   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 st_dev field describes the device on which this file resides.  (The
   major(3)  and  minor(3) macros may be useful to decompose the device ID
   in this field.)

   The  st_rdev  field  describes  the  device  that  this  file   (inode)
   represents.

   The  st_size  field gives the size of the file (if it is a regular file
   or a symbolic link) in bytes.  The size  of  a  symbolic  link  is  the
   length of the pathname it contains, without a terminating null byte.

   The  st_blocks  field  indicates  the number of blocks allocated to the
   file, 512-byte units.  (This may be smaller than st_size/512  when  the
   file has holes.)

   The  st_blksize  field  gives  the  "preferred" blocksize for efficient
   filesystem I/O.  (Writing to a file in  smaller  chunks  may  cause  an
   inefficient read-modify-rewrite.)

   Not  all  of  the  Linux  filesystems implement all of the time fields.
   Some filesystem types allow mounting in such a  way  that  file  and/or
   directory  accesses do not cause an update of the st_atime field.  (See
   noatime, nodiratime, and relatime in mount(8), and related  information
   in mount(2).)  In addition, st_atime is not updated if a file is opened
   with the O_NOATIME; see open(2).

   The field st_atime  is  changed  by  file  accesses,  for  example,  by
   execve(2),  mknod(2), pipe(2), utime(2), and read(2) (of more than zero
   bytes).  Other routines, like mmap(2), may or may not update st_atime.

   The field st_mtime is changed by file modifications,  for  example,  by
   mknod(2),  truncate(2),  utime(2),  and  write(2)  (of  more  than zero
   bytes).  Moreover, st_mtime of a directory is changed by  the  creation
   or  deletion  of  files  in  that directory.  The st_mtime field is not
   changed for changes in owner, group, hard link count, or mode.

   The  field  st_ctime  is  changed  by  writing  or  by  setting   inode
   information (i.e., owner, group, link count, mode, etc.).

   POSIX  refers to the st_mode bits corresponding to the mask S_IFMT (see
   below) as the file type, the 12 bits corresponding to the mask 07777 as
   the  file mode bits and the least significant 9 bits (0777) as the file
   permission bits.

   The following mask values are defined for the file type of the  st_mode
   field:

       S_IFMT     0170000   bit mask for the file type bit field

       S_IFSOCK   0140000   socket
       S_IFLNK    0120000   symbolic link
       S_IFREG    0100000   regular file
       S_IFBLK    0060000   block device
       S_IFDIR    0040000   directory
       S_IFCHR    0020000   character device
       S_IFIFO    0010000   FIFO

   Thus, to test for a regular file (for example), one could write:

       stat(pathname, &sb);
       if ((sb.st_mode & S_IFMT) == S_IFREG) {
           /* Handle regular file */
       }

   Because  tests  of  the  above  form  are common, additional macros are
   defined by POSIX to allow the test of the file type in  st_mode  to  be
   written more concisely:

       S_ISREG(m)  is it a regular file?

       S_ISDIR(m)  directory?

       S_ISCHR(m)  character device?

       S_ISBLK(m)  block device?

       S_ISFIFO(m) FIFO (named pipe)?

       S_ISLNK(m)  symbolic link?  (Not in POSIX.1-1996.)

       S_ISSOCK(m) socket?  (Not in POSIX.1-1996.)

   The preceding code snippet could thus be rewritten as:

       stat(pathname, &sb);
       if (S_ISREG(sb.st_mode)) {
           /* Handle regular file */
       }

   The definitions of most of the above file type test macros are provided
   if any of the following feature test macros is defined: _BSD_SOURCE (in
   glibc  2.19  and earlier), _SVID_SOURCE (in glibc 2.19 and earlier), or
   _DEFAULT_SOURCE (in glibc 2.20 and later).  In addition, definitions of
   all  of the above macros except S_IFSOCK and S_ISSOCK() are provided if
   _XOPEN_SOURCE is defined.  The  definition  of  S_IFSOCK  can  also  be
   exposed by defining _XOPEN_SOURCE with a value of 500 or greater.

   The definition of S_ISSOCK() is exposed if any of the following feature
   test macros is  defined:  _BSD_SOURCE  (in  glibc  2.19  and  earlier),
   _DEFAULT_SOURCE  (in  glibc 2.20 and later), _XOPEN_SOURCE with a value
   of 500 or greater, or  _POSIX_C_SOURCE  with  a  value  of  200112L  or
   greater.

   The  following  mask  values are defined for the file mode component of
   the st_mode field:

       S_ISUID     04000   set-user-ID bit
       S_ISGID     02000   set-group-ID bit (see below)
       S_ISVTX     01000   sticky bit (see below)

       S_IRWXU     00700   owner has read, write, and execute permission
       S_IRUSR     00400   owner has read permission
       S_IWUSR     00200   owner has write permission
       S_IXUSR     00100   owner has execute permission

       S_IRWXG     00070   group has read, write, and execute permission
       S_IRGRP     00040   group has read permission
       S_IWGRP     00020   group has write permission
       S_IXGRP     00010   group has execute permission

       S_IRWXO     00007   others (not in group) have read,  write,  and
                           execute permission
       S_IROTH     00004   others have read permission
       S_IWOTH     00002   others have write permission
       S_IXOTH     00001   others have execute permission

   The  set-group-ID  bit  (S_ISGID)  has  several  special  uses.   For a
   directory, it indicates that BSD semantics  is  to  be  used  for  that
   directory:  files  created  there  inherit  their  group  ID  from  the
   directory, not from the effective group ID of the creating process, and
   directories  created  there  will  also get the S_ISGID bit set.  For a
   file that does not have the group execution bit (S_IXGRP) set, the set-
   group-ID bit indicates mandatory file/record locking.

   The  sticky  bit  (S_ISVTX)  on  a  directory means that a file in that
   directory can be renamed or deleted only by the owner of the  file,  by
   the owner of the directory, and by a privileged process.

   fstatat()
   The  fstatat()  system call operates in exactly the same way as stat(),
   except for the differences described here.

   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() 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()).

   If pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

   flags  can  either  be 0, or include one or more of the following flags
   ORed:

   AT_EMPTY_PATH (since Linux 2.6.39)
          If pathname is an empty string, operate on the file referred  to
          by  dirfd (which may have been obtained using the open(2) O_PATH
          flag).  If dirfd is AT_FDCWD, the call operates on  the  current
          working directory.  In this case, dirfd can refer to any type of
          file, not just a directory.  This flag is Linux-specific; define
          _GNU_SOURCE to obtain its definition.

   AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT (since Linux 2.6.38)
          Don't  automount the terminal ("basename") component of pathname
          if it is a directory that is an automount  point.   This  allows
          the  caller  to  gather attributes of an automount point (rather
          than the location it would mount).  This flag  can  be  used  in
          tools  that  scan  directories to prevent mass-automounting of a
          directory of automount points.  The AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT flag has  no
          effect  if  the mount point has already been mounted over.  This
          flag  is  Linux-specific;  define  _GNU_SOURCE  to  obtain   its
          definition.

   AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
          If  pathname  is a symbolic link, do not dereference it: instead
          return information about the link  itself,  like  lstat().   (By
          default, fstatat() dereferences symbolic links, like stat().)

   See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for fstatat().

RETURN VALUE

   On  success,  zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
   set appropriately.

ERRORS

   EACCES Search permission is denied for one of the  directories  in  the
          path prefix of pathname.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

   EBADF  fd is not a valid open file descriptor.

   EFAULT Bad address.

   ELOOP  Too many symbolic links encountered while traversing the path.

   ENAMETOOLONG
          pathname is too long.

   ENOENT A  component of pathname does not exist, or pathname is an empty
          string.

   ENOMEM Out of memory (i.e., kernel memory).

   ENOTDIR
          A component of the path prefix of pathname is not a directory.

   EOVERFLOW
          pathname or fd refers to a file whose  size,  inode  number,  or
          number  of  blocks  cannot  be represented in, respectively, the
          types off_t, ino_t, or blkcnt_t.  This error can occur when, for
          example,  an  application  compiled on a 32-bit platform without
          -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 calls stat() on a file whose size exceeds
          (1<<31)-1 bytes.

   The following additional errors can occur for fstatat():

   EBADF  dirfd is not a valid file descriptor.

   EINVAL Invalid flag specified in flags.

   ENOTDIR
          pathname is relative and dirfd is a file descriptor referring to
          a file other than a directory.

VERSIONS

   fstatat() was added to Linux in  kernel  2.6.16;  library  support  was
   added to glibc in version 2.4.

CONFORMING TO

   stat(), fstat(), lstat(): SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1.2008.

   fstatat(): 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.)  If you
   need to obtain the definition of the blkcnt_t or blksize_t  types  from
   <sys/stat.h>,  then  define _XOPEN_SOURCE with the value 500 or greater
   (before including any header files).

   POSIX.1-1990 did not describe the S_IFMT, S_IFSOCK,  S_IFLNK,  S_IFREG,
   S_IFBLK,  S_IFDIR,  S_IFCHR,  S_IFIFO,  S_ISVTX  constants, but instead
   demanded the use of  the  macros  S_ISDIR(),  and  so  on.   The  S_IF*
   constants are present in POSIX.1-2001 and later.

   The  S_ISLNK()  and S_ISSOCK() macros are not in POSIX.1-1996, but both
   are present in POSIX.1-2001; the former is from SVID 4, the latter from
   SUSv2.

   UNIX V7 (and later systems) had S_IREAD, S_IWRITE, S_IEXEC, where POSIX
   prescribes the synonyms S_IRUSR, S_IWUSR, S_IXUSR.

   Other systems
   Values that have been (or are) in use on various systems:

   hex    name       ls   octal    description
   f000   S_IFMT          170000   mask for file type
   0000                   000000   SCO out-of-service inode; BSD
                                   unknown type; SVID-v2 and XPG2 have
                                   both 0 and 0100000 for ordinary file
   1000   S_IFIFO    p|   010000   FIFO (named pipe)
   2000   S_IFCHR    c    020000   character special (V7)
   3000   S_IFMPC         030000   multiplexed character special (V7)
   4000   S_IFDIR    d/   040000   directory (V7)
   5000   S_IFNAM         050000   XENIX named special file with two
                                   subtypes, distinguished by st_rdev
                                   values 1, 2
   0001   S_INSEM    s    000001   XENIX semaphore subtype of IFNAM
   0002   S_INSHD    m    000002   XENIX shared data subtype of IFNAM
   6000   S_IFBLK    b    060000   block special (V7)
   7000   S_IFMPB         070000   multiplexed block special (V7)
   8000   S_IFREG    -    100000   regular (V7)
   9000   S_IFCMP         110000   VxFS compressed
   9000   S_IFNWK    n    110000   network special (HP-UX)
   a000   S_IFLNK    l@   120000   symbolic link (BSD)
   b000   S_IFSHAD        130000   Solaris shadow inode for ACL (not
                                   seen by user space)
   c000   S_IFSOCK   s=   140000   socket (BSD; also "S_IFSOC" on VxFS)
   d000   S_IFDOOR   D>   150000   Solaris door
   e000   S_IFWHT    w%   160000   BSD whiteout (not used for inode)
   0200   S_ISVTX         001000   sticky bit: save swapped text even
                                   after use (V7)
                                   reserved (SVID-v2)
                                   On nondirectories: don't cache this
                                   file (SunOS)
                                   On directories: restricted deletion
                                   flag (SVID-v4.2)
   0400   S_ISGID         002000   set-group-ID on execution (V7)
                                   for directories: use BSD semantics
                                   for propagation of GID
   0400   S_ENFMT         002000   System V file locking enforcement
                                   (shared with S_ISGID)
   0800   S_ISUID         004000   set-user-ID on execution (V7)
   0800   S_CDF           004000   directory is a context dependent
                                   file (HP-UX)

   A sticky command appeared in Version 32V AT&T UNIX.

NOTES

   On  Linux,  lstat()  will  generally  not  trigger  automounter action,
   whereas stat() will (but see fstatat(2)).

   For pseudofiles that are autogenerated by the kernel, stat()  does  not
   return  an accurate value in the st_size field.  For example, the value
   0 is returned for many files under the /proc directory,  while  various
   files  under  /sys  report  a  size of 4096 bytes, even though the file
   content is smaller.  For such files, one should simply try to  read  as
   many bytes as possible (and append '\0' to the returned buffer if it is
   to be interpreted as a string).

   Timestamp fields
   Older kernels and older standards did not support nanosecond  timestamp
   fields.  Instead, there were three timestamp fields—st_atime, st_mtime,
   and st_ctime—typed as time_t that recorded timestamps  with  one-second
   precision.

   Since  kernel 2.5.48, the stat structure supports nanosecond resolution
   for the three file timestamp fields.  The nanosecond components of each
   timestamp  are  available  via  names  of  the form st_atim.tv_nsec, if
   suitable feature test macros are defined.  Nanosecond  timestamps  were
   standardized  in  POSIX.1-2008,  and, starting with version 2.12, glibc
   exposes the nanosecond component names if  _POSIX_C_SOURCE  is  defined
   with the value 200809L or greater, or _XOPEN_SOURCE is defined with the
   value 700 or greater.  Up to and including glibc 2.19, the  definitions
   of  the  nanoseconds  components  are  also  defined  if _BSD_SOURCE or
   _SVID_SOURCE is defined.  If none  of  the  aforementioned  macros  are
   defined,  then the nanosecond values are exposed with names of the form
   st_atimensec.

   Nanosecond timestamps are supported on XFS, JFS, Btrfs, and ext4 (since
   Linux  2.6.23).  Nanosecond timestamps are not supported in ext2, ext3,
   and Reiserfs.  On filesystems that do not support subsecond timestamps,
   the nanosecond fields are returned with the value 0.

   C library/kernel differences
   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:

   __old_kernel_stat
          The  original  structure,  with  rather  narrow  fields,  and no
          padding.

   stat   Larger st_ino field and padding added to various  parts  of  the
          structure to allow for future expansion.

   stat64 Even  larger  st_ino  field,  larger st_uid and st_gid fields to
          accommodate the Linux-2.4 expansion of UIDs and GIDs to 32 bits,
          and  various  other  enlarged  fields and further padding in the
          structure.  (Various padding bytes were eventually  consumed  in
          Linux  2.6,  with the advent of 32-bit device IDs and nanosecond
          components for the timestamp fields.)

   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().

EXAMPLE

   The  following program calls stat() and displays selected fields in the
   returned stat structure.

   #include <sys/types.h>
   #include <sys/stat.h>
   #include <time.h>
   #include <stdio.h>
   #include <stdlib.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 (stat(argv[1], &sb) == -1) {
           perror("stat");
           exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
       }

       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:            %ld\n", (long) sb.st_ino);

       printf("Mode:                     %lo (octal)\n",
               (unsigned long) sb.st_mode);

       printf("Link count:               %ld\n", (long) sb.st_nlink);
       printf("Ownership:                UID=%ld   GID=%ld\n",
               (long) sb.st_uid, (long) sb.st_gid);

       printf("Preferred I/O block size: %ld bytes\n",
               (long) sb.st_blksize);
       printf("File size:                %lld bytes\n",
               (long long) sb.st_size);
       printf("Blocks allocated:         %lld\n",
               (long long) 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);
   }

SEE ALSO

   ls(1), stat(1), access(2), chmod(2), chown(2),  readlink(2),  utime(2),
   capabilities(7), symlink(7)

COLOPHON

   This  page  is  part of release 4.09 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
   description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
   latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
   https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.





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