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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 *statbuf);
int fstat(int fd, struct stat *statbuf);
int lstat(const char *pathname, struct stat *statbuf);
#include <fcntl.h> /* Definition of AT_* constants */
#include <sys/stat.h>
int fstatat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, struct stat *statbuf,
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 statbuf. 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.
The stat structure
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; /* Block size 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 fields in the stat structure are as follows:
st_dev This 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.)
st_ino This field contains the file's inode number.
st_mode
This field contains the file type and mode. See inode(7) for further information.
st_nlink
This field contains the number of hard links to the file.
st_uid This field contains the user ID of the owner of the file.
st_gid This field contains the ID of the group owner of the file.
st_rdev
This field describes the device that this file (inode) represents.
st_size
This 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.
st_blksize
This field gives the "preferred" block size for efficient filesystem I/O.
st_blocks
This field indicates the number of blocks allocated to the file, in 512-byte units. (This may be
smaller than st_size/512 when the file has holes.)
st_atime
This is the file's last access timestamp.
st_mtime
This is the file's last modification timestamp.
st_ctime
This is the file's last status change timestamp.
For further information on the above fields, see inode(7).
fstatat()
The fstatat() system call is a more general interface for accessing file information which can still
provide exactly the behavior of each of stat(), lstat(), and fstat().
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() and lstat() 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() and lstat()).
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). In this case, dirfd can refer to any type of file, not
just a directory, and the behavior of fstatat() is similar to that of fstat(). If dirfd is
AT_FDCWD, the call operates on the current working 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). Since Linux 4.14, also don't instantiate a nonexistent name in an
on-demand directory such as used for automounter indirect maps. 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. Both stat() and lstat() act as
though AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT was set.
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 is a dangling symbolic link.
ENOENT pathname is an empty string and AT_EMPTY_PATH was not specified in flags.
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.)
NOTES
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.
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 lstat() 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>
#include <sys/sysmacros.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 (lstat(argv[1], &sb) == -1) {
perror("lstat");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
printf("ID of containing device: [%lx,%lx]\n",
(long) major(sb.st_dev), (long) minor(sb.st_dev));
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), statx(2), utime(2), capabilities(7),
inode(7), symlink(7)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 5.05 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/.