NAME

       lstat - 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 information about the link, while stat() shall  return  information  about  the
       file the link references.

       For  symbolic links, the st_mode member shall contain meaningful information 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 member 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 component 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 symbolic  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 ALSO

       fstat() , 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)