stat man page on NetBSD

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   9087 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
NetBSD logo
[printable version]

STAT(2)			    BSD System Calls Manual		       STAT(2)

NAME
     stat, lstat, fstat — get file status

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/stat.h>

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

     int
     lstat(const char *path, struct stat *sb);

     int
     fstat(int fd, struct stat *sb);

DESCRIPTION
     The stat() function obtains information about the file pointed to by
     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.

     The function lstat() is like stat() except in the case where the named
     file is a symbolic link, in which case lstat() returns information about
     the link, while stat() returns information about the file the link refer‐
     ences.  The fstat() function obtains the same information about an open
     file known by the file descriptor fd.

     The sb argument is a pointer to a stat structure as defined by
     <sys/stat.h> and into which information is placed concerning the file.

   The Standard Structure
     The following standards-compliant fields are defined in the structure:

	   Type	       Entry	    Description
	   dev_t       st_dev	    device ID containing the file
	   ino_t       st_ino	    serial number of the file
	   mode_t      st_mode	    mode of the file
	   nlink_t     st_nlink	    number of hard links to the file
	   uid_t       st_uid	    user ID of the owner
	   gid_t       st_gid	    group ID of the owner
	   dev_t       st_rdev	    device type (character or block special)
	   off_t       st_size	    size of the file in bytes
	   time_t      st_atime	    time of last access
	   time_t      st_mtime	    time of last data modification
	   time_t      st_ctime	    time of last file status change
	   blksize_t   st_blksize   preferred I/O block size (fs-specific)
	   blkcnt_t    st_blocks    blocks allocated for the file

     These are specified in the IEEE Std 1003.1-2004 (“POSIX.1”) standard.
     The st_ino and st_dev fields taken together uniquely identify the file
     within the system.	 Most of the types are defined in types(3).

     The time-related fields are:

	   st_atime    Time when file data was last accessed.  Changed by the
		       mknod(2), utimes(2), and read(2) system calls.

	   st_mtime    Time when file data was last modified.  Changed by the
		       mknod(2), utimes(2), and write(2) system calls.

	   st_ctime    Time when file status was last changed (file metadata
		       modification).  Changed by the chflags(2), chmod(2),
		       chown(2), link(2), mknod(2), rename(2), unlink(2),
		       utimes(2), and write(2) system calls.

     The size-related fields of the struct stat are as follows:

	   st_size     The size of the file in bytes.  The meaning of the size
		       reported for a directory is file system dependent.
		       Some file systems (e.g. FFS) return the total size used
		       for the directory metadata, possibly including free
		       slots; others (notably ZFS) return the number of
		       entries in the directory.  Some may also return other
		       things or always report zero.

	   st_blksize  The optimal I/O block size for the file.

	   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.

     The status information word st_mode contains bits that define the access
     mode (see chmod(2)) and the type (see dirent(3)) of the file.  The fol‐
     lowing macros can be used to test whether a file is of the specified
     type.  The value m supplied to the macros is the value of st_mode.

	   S_ISBLK(m)	Test for a block special file.

	   S_ISCHR(m)	Test for a character special file.

	   S_ISDIR(m)	Test for a directory.

	   S_ISFIFO(m)	Test for a pipe or FIFO special file.

	   S_ISREG(m)	Test for a regular file.

	   S_ISLNK(m)	Test for a symbolic link.

	   S_ISSOCK(m)	Test for a socket.

     The macros evaluate to a non-zero value if the test is true or to the
     value 0 if the test is false.

   NetBSD Extensions
     The following additional NetBSD specific fields are present:

	   Type	       Entry		   Description
	   long	       st_atimensec	   last access (nanoseconds)
	   long	       st_mtimensec	   last modification (nanoseconds)
	   long	       st_ctimensec	   last status change (nanoseconds)
	   time_t      st_birthtime	   time of inode creation
	   long	       st_birthtimensec	   inode creation (nanoseconds)
	   uint32_t    st_flags		   user defined flags for the file
	   uint32_t    st_gen		   file generation number
	   uint32_t    st_spare[2]	   implementation detail

     However, if _NETBSD_SOURCE is furthermore defined, instead of the above,
     the following are present in the structure:

	   Type		       Entry		   Description
	   struct timespec     st_atimespec	   time of last access
	   struct timespec     st_mtimespec	   time of last modification
	   struct timespec     st_birthtimespec	   time of creation
	   uint32_t	       st_flags		   user defined flags
	   uint32_t	       st_gen		   file generation number
	   uint32_t	       st_spare[2]	   implementation detail

     In this case the following macros are provided for convenience:

	   #if defined(_NETBSD_SOURCE)
	     #define st_atime		     st_atimespec.tv_sec
	     #define st_atimensec	     st_atimespec.tv_nsec
	     #define st_mtime		     st_mtimespec.tv_sec
	     #define st_mtimensec	     st_mtimespec.tv_nsec
	     #define st_ctime		     st_ctimespec.tv_sec
	     #define st_ctimensec	     st_ctimespec.tv_nsec
	     #define st_birthtime	     st_birthtimespec.tv_sec
	     #define st_birthtimensec	     st_birthtimespec.tv_nsec
	   #endif

     The status information word st_flags has the following bits:

	   Constant	       Description
	   UF_NODUMP	       do not dump a file
	   UF_IMMUTABLE	       file may not be changed
	   UF_APPEND	       writes to file may only append
	   UF_OPAQUE	       directory is opaque wrt. union
	   SF_ARCHIVED	       file is archived
	   SF_IMMUTABLE	       file may not be changed
	   SF_APPEND	       writes to file may only append

     For a description of the flags, see chflags(2).

RETURN VALUES
     Upon successful completion a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise, a value
     of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

COMPATIBILITY
     Previous versions of the system used different types for the st_dev,
     st_uid, st_gid, st_rdev, st_size, st_blksize and st_blocks fields.

ERRORS
     stat() and lstat() will fail if:

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

     [EBADF]		A badly formed vnode was encountered.  This can happen
			if a file system information node is incorrect.

     [EFAULT]		sb or name points to an invalid address.

     [EIO]		An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
			the file system.

     [ELOOP]		Too many symbolic links were encountered in translat‐
			ing the pathname.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} charac‐
			ters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} char‐
			acters.

     [ENOENT]		The named file does not exist.

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

     [ENXIO]		The named file is a character special or block special
			file, and the device associated with this special file
			does not exist.

     fstat() will fail if:

     [EBADF]		fd is not a valid open file descriptor.

     [EFAULT]		sb points to an invalid address.

     [EIO]		An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
			the file system.

SEE ALSO
     chflags(2), chmod(2), chown(2), utimes(2), dirent(3), types(3),
     symlink(7)

STANDARDS
     The described functions conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2004 (“POSIX.1”).

HISTORY
     A stat() function call appeared in Version 2 AT&T UNIX.  A lstat() func‐
     tion call appeared in 4.2BSD.

BUGS
     Applying fstat() to a socket (and thus to a pipe) returns a zero'd buf‐
     fer, except for the blocksize field, and a unique device and file serial
     number.

BSD			      September 14, 2011			   BSD
[top]
                             _         _         _ 
                            | |       | |       | |     
                            | |       | |       | |     
                         __ | | __ __ | | __ __ | | __  
                         \ \| |/ / \ \| |/ / \ \| |/ /  
                          \ \ / /   \ \ / /   \ \ / /   
                           \   /     \   /     \   /    
                            \_/       \_/       \_/ 
More information is available in HTML format for server NetBSD

List of man pages available for NetBSD

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net