stat(), stat64()

Arguments:

path

The path of the file or directory that you want information about.

buf

A pointer to a struct stat or struct stat64 buffer where the function can store the information.

Library:

libc

Use the -l c option to qcc to link against this library. This library is usually included automatically.

Description:

The stat() and stat64() functions obtain information about the file or directory referenced in path. This information is placed in the structure located at the address indicated by buf.

Returns:

0

Success.

-1

An error occurred (errno is set).

Errors:

EACCES

Search permission is denied for a component of path.

EAGAIN

The function is temporarily unavailable. Try again.

EINTR

This function was interrupted by a signal.

EINVAL

The function was unable to convert the format of the stat structure received from the resource manager to _STAT_FORM_PREFERRED; see stat_convert_form().

EIO

A physical error occurred on the block device.

ELOOP

Too many levels of symbolic links or prefixes.

ENAMETOOLONG

The length of the path string exceeds PATH_MAX.

ENOENT

The named file doesn't exist, or path is an empty string.

ENOMEM

Not enough memory is available.

ENOSYS

The stat() function isn't implemented for the filesystem underlying the path specified in path.

ENOTDIR

A component of path isn't a directory.

EOVERFLOW

The file size in bytes or the number of blocks allocated to the file or the file serial number can't be represented correctly in the structure pointed to by buf.

ESRCH (procfs only)

There is no running process that corresponds to /proc/pid.

Examples:

Determine the size of a file:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>

int main( void )
  {
    struct stat buf;

    if( stat( "file", &buf ) != -1 ) {
      printf( "File size = %d\n", buf.st_size );
    }
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
  }

Determine the amount of free memory:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>

int main () {
   struct stat buf;
   
   if ( stat( "/proc", &buf ) == -1) {
      perror ("stat" );
      return EXIT_FAILURE;
   } else {
      printf ("Free memory: %d bytes\n", buf.st_size);
      return EXIT_SUCCESS;
   }
}

Classification:

stat() is POSIX 1003.1; stat64() is Large-file support