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STAT(2) FreeBSD System Calls Manual STAT(2)
NAME
stat, lstat, fstat, fstatat - get file status
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
int
stat(const char * restrict path, struct stat * restrict sb);
int
lstat(const char * restrict path, struct stat * restrict sb);
int
fstat(int fd, struct stat *sb);
int
fstatat(int fd, const char *path, struct stat *sb, int flag);
DESCRIPTION
The stat() system call 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 lstat() system call is like stat() except when 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 references.
The fstat() system call obtains the same information about an open file
known by the file descriptor fd.
The fstatat() system call is equivalent to stat() and lstat() except when
the path specifies a relative path. For fstatat() and relative path, the
status is retrieved from a file relative to the directory associated with
the file descriptor fd instead of the current working directory.
The values for the flag are constructed by a bitwise-inclusive OR of
flags from this list, defined in <fcntl.h>:
AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
If path names a symbolic link, the status of the symbolic link is
returned.
AT_RESOLVE_BENEATH
Only walk paths below the starting directory. See the
description of the O_RESOLVE_BENEATH flag in the open(2) manual
page.
AT_EMPTY_PATH
If the path argument is an empty string, operate on the file or
directory referenced by the descriptor fd. If fd is equal to
AT_FDCWD, operate on the current working directory.
If fstatat() is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the fd parameter,
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 fields of struct stat related to the file system are:
st_dev Numeric ID of the device containing the file.
st_ino The file's inode number.
st_nlink Number of hard links to the file.
st_flags Flags enabled for the file. See chflags(2) for the list of
flags and their description.
The st_dev and st_ino fields together identify the file uniquely within
the system.
The time-related fields of struct stat are:
st_atim Time when file data was last accessed. Changed implicitly
by syscalls such as read(2) and readv(2), and explicitly by
utimes(2).
st_mtim Time when file data was last modified. Changed implicitly
by syscalls such as truncate(2), write(2), and writev(2),
and explicitly by utimes(2). Also, any syscall which
modifies directory content changes the st_mtim for the
affected directory. For instance, creat(2), mkdir(2),
rename(2), link(2), and unlink(2).
st_ctim Time when file status was last changed (inode data
modification). Changed implicitly by any syscall that
affects file metadata, including st_mtim, such as
chflags(2), chmod(2), chown(2), truncate(2), utimes(2), and
write(2). Also, any syscall which modifies directory
content changes the st_ctim for the affected directory. For
instance, creat(2), mkdir(2), rename(2), link(2), and
unlink(2).
st_birthtim Time when the inode was created.
These time-related macros are defined for compatibility:
#define st_atime st_atim.tv_sec
#define st_mtime st_mtim.tv_sec
#define st_ctime st_ctim.tv_sec
#ifndef _POSIX_SOURCE
#define st_birthtime st_birthtim.tv_sec
#endif
#ifndef _POSIX_SOURCE
#define st_atimespec st_atim
#define st_mtimespec st_mtim
#define st_ctimespec st_ctim
#define st_birthtimespec st_birthtim
#endif
Size-related fields of the struct stat are:
The access-related fields of struct stat are:
st_uid User ID of the file's owner.
st_gid Group ID of the file.
st_mode Status of the file (see below).
The status information word st_mode has these bits:
#define S_IFMT 0170000 /* type of file mask */
#define S_IFIFO 0010000 /* named pipe (fifo) */
#define S_IFCHR 0020000 /* character special */
#define S_IFDIR 0040000 /* directory */
#define S_IFBLK 0060000 /* block special */
#define S_IFREG 0100000 /* regular */
#define S_IFLNK 0120000 /* symbolic link */
#define S_IFSOCK 0140000 /* socket */
#define S_IFWHT 0160000 /* whiteout */
#define S_ISUID 0004000 /* set user id on execution */
#define S_ISGID 0002000 /* set group id on execution */
#define S_ISVTX 0001000 /* save swapped text even after use */
#define S_IRWXU 0000700 /* RWX mask for owner */
#define S_IRUSR 0000400 /* read permission, owner */
#define S_IWUSR 0000200 /* write permission, owner */
#define S_IXUSR 0000100 /* execute/search permission, owner */
#define S_IRWXG 0000070 /* RWX mask for group */
#define S_IRGRP 0000040 /* read permission, group */
#define S_IWGRP 0000020 /* write permission, group */
#define S_IXGRP 0000010 /* execute/search permission, group */
#define S_IRWXO 0000007 /* RWX mask for other */
#define S_IROTH 0000004 /* read permission, other */
#define S_IWOTH 0000002 /* write permission, other */
#define S_IXOTH 0000001 /* execute/search permission, other */
For a list of access modes, see <sys/stat.h>, access(2) and chmod(2).
These macros are available to test whether a st_mode value passed in the
m argument corresponds to a file of the specified type:
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_ISLNK(m) Test for a symbolic link.
S_ISREG(m) Test for a regular file.
S_ISSOCK(m)
Test for a socket.
S_ISWHT(m) Test for a whiteout.
The macros evaluate to a non-zero value if the test is true or to the
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
The stat() and lstat() system calls will fail if:
[EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the
path prefix.
[EFAULT] The sb or path argument points to an invalid address.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
the file system.
[EINTEGRITY] Corrupted data was detected while reading from the
file system.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in
translating the pathname.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters, or
an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
[ENOENT] The named file does not exist.
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
[EOVERFLOW] The file size in bytes cannot be represented correctly
in the structure pointed to by sb.
The fstat() system call will fail if:
[EBADF] The fd argument is not a valid open file descriptor.
[EFAULT] The sb argument points to an invalid address.
[EIO] An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to
the file system.
[EINTEGRITY] Corrupted data was detected while reading from the
file system.
[EOVERFLOW] The file size in bytes cannot be represented correctly
in the structure pointed to by sb.
In addition to the errors returned by the lstat(), the fstatat() may fail
if:
[EBADF] The path argument does not specify an absolute path
and the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid
file descriptor open for searching.
[EINVAL] The value of the flag argument is not valid.
[ENOTDIR] The path argument is not an absolute path and fd is
neither AT_FDCWD nor a file descriptor associated with
a directory.
access(2), chmod(2), chown(2), fhstat(2), statfs(2), utimes(2),
sticky(7), symlink(7)
STANDARDS
The stat() and fstat() system calls are expected to conform to IEEE Std
1003.1-1990 ("POSIX.1"). The fstatat() system call follows The Open
Group Extended API Set 2 specification.
HISTORY
The stat() and fstat() system calls appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX. The
lstat() system call appeared in 4.2BSD. The fstatat() system call
appeared in FreeBSD 8.0.
BUGS
Applying fstat() to a socket returns a zeroed buffer, except for the
blocksize field, and a unique device and inode number.
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p6 March 30, 2021 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p6