STAT(3P)

PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
stat - get file status

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/stat.h>

int stat(const char *restrict path, struct stat *restrict buf);

DESCRIPTION

The stat() function shall obtain information about the named file and write it to the area pointed to by the buf argument. The path argument points to a pathname naming a file. Read, write, or execute permission of the named file is not required. An implementation that provides additional or alternate file access control mechanisms may, under implementation-defined conditions, cause stat() to fail. In particular, the system may deny the existence of the file specified by path.

If the named file is a symbolic link, the stat() function shall continue pathname resolution using the contents of the symbolic link, and shall return information pertaining to the resulting file if the file exists.

The buf argument is a pointer to a stat structure, as defined in the <sys/stat.h> header, into which information is placed concerning the file.

The stat() 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.

Unless otherwise specified, 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 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.

RETURN VALUE

Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned. Otherwise, -1 shall be returned and errno set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

The stat() function shall fail if:

EACCES
    Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.

EIO An error occurred while reading from the file system.

ELOOP
    A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the path argument.

ENAMETOOLONG
    The length of the path argument exceeds {PATH_MAX} or a pathname component is longer than {NAME_MAX}.

ENOENT
    A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an empty string.

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

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 stat() function may fail if:

ELOOP
    More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the path argument.

ENAMETOOLONG
    As a result of encountering a symbolic link in resolution of the path argument, the length of the substituted pathname string exceeded {PATH_MAX}.

EOVERFLOW
    A value to be stored would overflow one of the members of the stat structure.

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.

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

    struct stat buffer;
    int         status;
    ...
    status = stat("/home/cnd/mod1", &buffer);

  Getting Directory Information

The following example fragment gets status information for each entry in a directory. The call to the stat() function stores file information in the stat structure pointed to by statbuf. The lines that follow the stat() call format the fields in the stat structure for presentation to the user of the program.

    #include <sys/types.h>
    #include <sys/stat.h>
    #include <dirent.h>
    #include <pwd.h>
    #include <grp.h>
    #include <time.h>
    #include <locale.h>
    #include <langinfo.h>
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <stdint.h>

    struct dirent  *dp;
    struct stat     statbuf;
    struct passwd  *pwd;
    struct group   *grp;
    struct tm      *tm;
    char            datestring[256];
    ...
    /* Loop through directory entries. */
    while ((dp = readdir(dir)) != NULL) {

        /* Get entry's information. */
        if (stat(dp->d_name, &statbuf) == -1)
            continue;

        /* Print out type, permissions, and number of links. */
        printf("%10.10s", sperm (statbuf.st_mode));
        printf("%4d", statbuf.st_nlink);

        /* Print out owner's name if it is found using getpwuid(). */
        if ((pwd = getpwuid(statbuf.st_uid)) != NULL)
            printf(" %-8.8s", pwd->pw_name);
        else
            printf(" %-8d", statbuf.st_uid);

        /* Print out group name if it is found using getgrgid(). */
        if ((grp = getgrgid(statbuf.st_gid)) != NULL)
            printf(" %-8.8s", grp->gr_name);
        else
            printf(" %-8d", statbuf.st_gid);

        /* Print size of file. */
        printf(" %9jd", (intmax_t)statbuf.st_size);

        tm = localtime(&statbuf.st_mtime);

        /* Get localized date string. */
        strftime(datestring, sizeof(datestring), nl_langinfo(D_T_FMT), tm);

        printf(" %s %s\n", datestring, dp->d_name);
    }

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

RATIONALE

The intent of the paragraph describing "additional or alternate file access control mechanisms" is to allow a secure implementation where a process with a label that does not dominate the file's label cannot perform a stat() function. This is not related to read permission; a process with a label that dominates the file's label does not need read permission. An implementation that supports write-up operations could fail fstat() function calls even though it has a valid file descriptor open for writing.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

fstat(), lstat(), readlink(), symlink(), 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 Technology -- 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 .