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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 .