SAS/C Library Reference, Vol. 1

lstat -- Get File or Link Status

SYNOPSIS

 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>

 int lstat(const char *pathname, struct stat *buf);

DESCRIPTION

lstat gets status information about a file or symbolic link. pathname is the file. buf is the memory area for storing the status information.

The status information is returned in the stat structure defined in <sys/stat.h>:

mode_t st_mode: indicates the permissions set for the file.
ino_t st_ino: is the file serial number.
dev_t st_dev: is the numeric ID of the device.
nlink_t st_nlink: is the number of links to the file.
uid_t st_uid: is the numeric user ID of the owner of the file.
gid_t st_gid: is the numeric group ID of the file.
off_t st_size: indicates the file size in bytes for regular files.
time_t st_atime: indicates the most recent access time.
time_t st_ctime: indicates the most recent time the file status was changed.
time_t st_mtime: indicates the most recent time the file contents were changed.

The pathname must be specified as an OpenEdition HFS file. For programs not compiled with the posix option, a style prefix may be required. See Low-level and Standard I/O for information on specifying OpenEdition filenames.

The <sys/stat.h> header file contains a collection of macros that you can use to examine properties of a mode_t value from the st_mode field. For a list of these macros, see the documentation on the fstat function.

RETURN VALUE

lstat returns 0 if it is successful and - 1 if it is not successful.

EXAMPLE

  #include <sys/types.h>
  #include <unistd.h>
  #include <stdio.h>
  #include <sys/stat.h>
  #include <fcntl.h>
  #include <stdlib.h>
  #include <time.h>

  main()
  {

     char flname[] ="link.file";
     char lkname[] ="link.example";
     int fd;
     struct stat info;

        /* Create a file for linking.                           */
     if ((fd = open(flname,O_CREAT)) < 0)
        perror("open() error");
     else {
        close(fd);
           /* Check the status of the file.                     */
        puts("Status before link:");
        system("ls -il link.*");
           /* Create an alternative path for the existing file. */
        if (link(flname,lkname) != 0) {
           perror("link() error");
           unlink(flname);
        }
        else {
           puts("Status after linking:");
           system("ls -il link.*");
           if (lstat(lkname, &info) != 0)
              perror("lstat() error");
           else {
              printf("nlstat() for link %s returned:n", lkname);
              printf("inode: %dn", (int) info.st_ino);
              printf("dev id: %dn", (int) info.st_dev);
              printf("user id: %dn", (int) info.st_uid);
              printf("links: %dn",  info.st_nlink);
              printf("file size: %dn", (int) info.st_size);
              printf("mode: %08xn",  info.st_mode);
              printf("created: %s", ctime(&info.st_createtime));
           }
        }
        unlink(flname);
        unlink(lkname);
     }
  }

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