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 .