stat - Man Page

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

#include <sys/stat.h>

int stat(const char *restrict pathname,
         struct stat *restrict statbuf);
int fstat(int fd, struct stat *statbuf);
int lstat(const char *restrict pathname,
         struct stat *restrict statbuf);

#include <fcntl.h>           /* Definition of AT_* constants */
#include <sys/stat.h>

int fstatat(int dirfd, const char *restrict pathname,
         struct stat *restrict statbuf, int flags);

lstat():

    /* Since glibc 2.20 */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
        || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500
        || /* Since glibc 2.10: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
        || /* glibc 2.19 and earlier */ _BSD_SOURCE

fstatat():

    Since glibc 2.10:
        _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
    Before glibc 2.10:
        _ATFILE_SOURCE

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 the link 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.

On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.

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.

EBADF

(fstatat()) pathname is relative but dirfd is neither AT_FDCWD nor a valid file descriptor.

EFAULT

Bad address.

EINVAL

(fstatat()) Invalid flag specified in flags.

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.

ENOTDIR

(fstatat()) pathname is relative and dirfd is a file descriptor referring to a file other than 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.

POSIX.1-2008.

stat()

fstat()

lstat()

SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

fstatat()

POSIX.1-2008. Linux 2.6.16, glibc 2.4.

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.)

The following program calls lstat() and displays selected fields in the returned stat structure.

#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/sysmacros.h>
#include <time.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:  [%x,%x]\n",
           major(sb.st_dev),
           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:            %ju\n", (uintmax_t) sb.st_ino);

    printf("Mode:                     %jo (octal)\n",
           (uintmax_t) sb.st_mode);

    printf("Link count:               %ju\n", (uintmax_t) sb.st_nlink);
    printf("Ownership:                UID=%ju   GID=%ju\n",
           (uintmax_t) sb.st_uid, (uintmax_t) sb.st_gid);

    printf("Preferred I/O block size: %jd bytes\n",
           (intmax_t) sb.st_blksize);
    printf("File size:                %jd bytes\n",
           (intmax_t) sb.st_size);
    printf("Blocks allocated:         %jd\n",
           (intmax_t) 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);
}

ls(1), stat(1), access(2), chmod(2), chown(2), readlink(2), statx(2), utime(2), stat(3type), capabilities(7), inode(7), symlink(7)

access(2), acl(5), amd.conf(5), archive_entry_stat(3), autofs(5), bash(1), bmake(1), ch-image(1), chmod(2), collectd.conf(5), cpio(5), criu(8), dirfd(3), disorderfs(1), dump(8), euidaccess(3), ev(3), fakeroot(1), faketime(1), fallocate(2), fanotify_init(2), fastrm(1), FcDirCacheLoadFile(3), fgetln.3bsd(3), file(1), filefuncs.3am(3), fim(1), find(1), fio(1), fseek(3), fswatch(1), ftok(3), fts(3), ftw(3), fuse(4), fuser(1), futimesat(2), gd_desync(3), getfilecon(3), getseuserbyname(3), getxattr(2), gitformat-index(5), git-update-index(1), glob(3), guestfish(1), guestfs(3), guestmount(1), inode(7), inotify(7), ioctl_nsfs(2), isatty(3), isfdtype(3), landlock(7), libarchive(3), libinn(3), libinnhist(3), libmagic(3), librrd(3), libssh2_sftp_stat_ex(3), link(2), listxattr(2), lsfd(1), lsof(1), maildir(5), makedev(3), mbox(5), mbox_neomutt(5), mgp.1x(1), mkdir(2), mkfifo(3), mknod(2), mmdf(5), mmdf_neomutt(5), mount(2), mount.fuse(8), muttrc(5), namespaces(7), neomuttrc(5), nfs(5), nfslogsum(8), ocfs2(7), opax(1), open(2), path_resolution(7), perl561delta(1), perl56delta(1), perlfunc(1), pidfile.3bsd(3), pipe(7), pivot_root(2), pmem2_badblock_context_new(3), pmem2_source_alignment(3), pmem2_source_device_id(3), pmem2_source_device_usc(3), pmem2_source_size(3), proc(5), procenv(1), proc_pid_mountinfo(5), pv(1), rdist(1), readdir(3), readdir.3am(3), readline(3), readlink(2), removexattr(2), rsync(1), samefile(1), sd_is_fifo(3), sd_notify(3), sec(1), selabel_file(5), selabel_lookup_best_match(3), setfilecon(3), setmode.3bsd(3), setxattr(2), shm_open(3), shm_overview(7), signal-safety(7), since(1), s-nail(1), snobol4stat(3), spax(1), spu_create(2), spufs(7), star(1), star(5), stat(1), statfs(2), statx(2), strace(1), stress-ng(1), strmode.3bsd(3), sudo(8), symlink(2), symlink(7), syscalls(2), sysfs(5), systemd-analyze(1), tar_append_file(3), tar_extract_all(3), tar_extract_file(3), tcsh(1), termkey_new(3), th_set_from_stat(3), time(7), truncate(2), ttyname(3), umask(2), umount(8), user_namespaces(7), ustat(2), utime(2), utimensat(2), valkey-latency-monitor(7), watchdog(8), xattr(7), xdvi(1), xfs(5), xfs_db(8), xfs_io(8), xzgv(1), zfs(8), zshmodules(1).

The man pages fstat(2), fstat64(2), fstatat(2), fstatat64(2), lstat(2), lstat64(2), newfstatat(2), oldfstat(2), oldlstat(2), oldstat(2) and stat64(2) are aliases of stat(2).