Open System Services System Calls Reference Manual (G06.25+, H06.03+)

System Functions (k - m) lstat(2)
NAME
lstat - Provides information about a symbolic link or any file
LIBRARY
G-series native Guardian processes: system library
G-series native OSS processes: system library
H-series native Guardian processes: implicit libraries
H-series OSS processes: implicit libraries
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
int lstat(
const char *path,
struct stat *buffer);
PARAMETERS
path Points to the pathname of a file. If used for a symbolic link, then the path param-
eter points to the pathname of the symbolic link identifying the file.
buffer Points to a stat structure, into which information is placed about the file.
DESCRIPTION
The lstat() function obtains information about the symbolic link whose name is pointed to by the
path parameter or about any file pointed to by the path parameter.
The lstat() function is like the stat() or fstat() function, except that lstat( ) returns information
about the link, while the stat() and fstat() functions return information about the file that the link
refers to.
Read, write, or execute permission for the named file is not required, but all directories listed in
the pathname leading to the file must be searchable.
The file information is written to the area specified by the buffer parameter, which is a pointer to
a stat structure with the following definition from the sys/stat.h header file:
struct stat {
dev_t st_dev;
ino_t st_ino;
mode_t st_mode;
nlink_t st_nlink;
char filler_1[2];
uid_t st_uid;
gid_t st_gid;
char filler_2[4];
dev_t st_rdev;
off_t st_size;
time_t st_atime;
time_t st_mtime;
time_t st_ctime;
int64_t reserved[3];
};
For symbolic links to local OSS objects, the st_mode and st_size fields are valid and the other
fields in the structure are undefined. For symbolic links that resolve to files in /E, the st_dev,
st_ino, st_atime, st_mtime, and st_ctime fields are defined as described in this reference page.
For files other than a symbolic link, the lstat() function sets the st_size field of the stat structure
to the length in characters of the absolute pathname resulting from the resolution of the name
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