LSTAT(P) POSIX Programmer's Manual LSTAT(P)NAMElstat - get symbolic link status
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
int lstat(const char *restrict path, struct stat *restrict buf);
DESCRIPTION
The lstat() function shall be equivalent to stat(), except when path
refers to a symbolic link. In that case lstat() shall return informa‐
tion about the link, while stat() shall return information about the
file the link references.
For symbolic links, the st_mode member shall contain meaningful infor‐
mation when used with the file type macros, and the st_size member
shall contain the length of the pathname contained in the symbolic
link. File mode bits and the contents of the remaining members of the
stat structure are unspecified. The value returned in the st_size mem‐
ber is the length of the contents of the symbolic link, and does not
count any trailing null.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, lstat() shall return 0. Otherwise, it shall
return -1 and set errno to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The lstat() function shall fail if:
EACCES A component of the path prefix denies search permission.
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 a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX} or a pathname compo‐
nent is longer than {NAME_MAX}.
ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an
empty string.
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 lstat() 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
One of the members is too large to store into the structure
pointed to by the buf argument.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Obtaining Symbolic Link Status Information
The following example shows how to obtain status information for a sym‐
bolic link named /modules/pass1. The structure variable buffer is
defined for the stat structure. If the path argument specified the
filename for the file pointed to by the symbolic link (
/home/cnd/mod1), the results of calling the function would be the same
as those returned by a call to the stat() function.
#include <sys/stat.h>
struct stat buffer;
int status;
...
status = lstat("/modules/pass1", &buffer);
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
The lstat() function is not required to update the time-related fields
if the named file is not a symbolic link. While the st_uid, st_gid,
st_atime, st_mtime, and st_ctime members of the stat structure may
apply to a symbolic link, they are not required to do so. No functions
in IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 are required to maintain any of these time
fields.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOfstat() , readlink() , stat() , symlink() , the Base Definitions volume
of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <sys/stat.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 .
IEEE/The Open Group 2003 LSTAT(P)
