NAME

stat - get file status

 SYNOPSIS

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

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

 DESCRIPTION

The stat() function obtains information about the named file and writes 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, but all directories listed in the pathname leading to the file must be searchable. An implementation that provides additional or alternate file access control mechanisms may, under implementation-dependent conditions, cause stat() to fail. In particular, the system may deny the existence of the file specified by path.

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

The stat() function updates any time-related fields (as described in the definition of File Times Update in the XBD specification), before writing into the stat structure.

The structure members st_mode, st_ino, st_dev, st_uid, st_gid, st_atime, st_ctime and st_mtime will have meaningful values for all file types defined in this document. The value of the member st_nlink will be set to the number of links to the file.

 RETURN VALUE

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

 ERRORS

The stat() function will 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]

Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving path.

[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:

[ENAMETOOLONG]

Pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result whose length exceeds {PATH_MAX}.

[EOVERFLOW]

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

 EXAMPLES

None.

 APPLICATION USAGE

None.

 FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

 SEE ALSO

fstat(), lstat(), <sys/stat.h>, <sys/types.h>.

DERIVATION

Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.