glenda.party
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$home/manuals/9front/2/stat
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STAT(2)                       System Calls Manual                      STAT(2)



NAME
       stat,  fstat,  wstat,  fwstat,  dirstat, dirfstat, dirwstat, dirfwstat,
       nulldir - get and put file status

SYNOPSIS
       #include <u.h>
       #include <libc.h>

       int stat(char *name, uchar *edir, int nedir)

       int fstat(int fd, uchar *edir, int nedir)

       int wstat(char *name, uchar *edir, int nedir)

       int fwstat(int fd, uchar *edir, int nedir)

       Dir* dirstat(char *name)

       Dir* dirfstat(int fd)

       int dirwstat(char *name, Dir *dir)

       int dirfwstat(int fd, Dir *dir)

       void nulldir(Dir *d)

DESCRIPTION
       Given a file's name, or an open file descriptor fd, these routines  re‐
       trieve  or modify file status information.  Stat, fstat, wstat, and fw‐
       stat are the system calls; they deal with machine-independent directory
       entries.   Their format is defined by stat(5).  Stat and fstat retrieve
       information about name or fd into edir, a buffer of length  nedir,  de‐
       fined  in  <libc.h>.   Wstat  and  fwstat  write information back, thus
       changing file attributes according to the contents of edir.   The  data
       returned  from  the  kernel includes its leading 16-bit length field as
       described in intro(5).  For symmetry, this field must also  be  present
       when  passing data to the kernel in a call to wstat and fwstat, but its
       value is ignored.

       Dirstat, dirfstat, dirwstat, and dirfwstat are similar to  their  coun‐
       terparts, except that they operate on Dir structures:

              typedef
              struct Dir {
                    /* system-modified data */
                    uint  type;    /* server type */
                    uint  dev;     /* server subtype */
                    /* file data */
                    Qid   qid;     /* unique id from server */
                    ulong mode;    /* permissions */
                    ulong atime;   /* last read time */
                    ulong mtime;   /* last write time */
                    vlong length;  /* file length: see <u.h> */
                    char  *name;   /* last element of path */
                    char  *uid;    /* owner name */
                    char  *gid;    /* group name */
                    char  *muid;   /* last modifier name */
              } Dir;

       The returned structure is allocated by malloc(2); freeing it also frees
       the associated strings.

       This structure and the Qid structure are defined in <libc.h>.   If  the
       file  resides  on  permanent storage and is not a directory, the length
       returned by stat is the number of bytes in the file.  For  directories,
       the  length  returned is zero.  For files that are streams (e.g., pipes
       and network connections), the length is the number of bytes that can be
       read without blocking.

       Each  file  is  the  responsibility  of some server: it could be a file
       server, a kernel device, or a user process.  Type identifies the server
       type,  and dev says which of a group of servers of the same type is the
       one responsible for this file.  Qid is a structure containing path  and
       vers  fields: path is guaranteed to be unique among all path names cur‐
       rently on the file server, and vers changes each time the file is modi‐
       fied.   The path is a long long (64 bits, vlong) and the vers is an un‐
       signed long (32 bits, ulong).  Thus, if two files have the  same  type,
       dev, and qid they are the same file.

       The bits in mode are defined by

             0x80000000   directory
             0x40000000   append only
             0x20000000   exclusive use (locked)

                   0400   read permission by owner
                   0200   write permission by owner
                   0100   execute permission (search on directory) by owner
                   0070   read, write, execute (search) by group
                   0007   read, write, execute (search) by others

       There  are  constants  defined in <libc.h> for these bits: DMDIR, DMAP‐
       PEND, and DMEXCL for the first three; and DMREAD, DMWRITE,  and  DMEXEC
       for the read, write, and execute bits for others.

       The  two  time  fields  are  measured in seconds since the epoch (Jan 1
       00:00 1970 GMT).  Mtime is the time of  the  last  change  of  content.
       Similarly, atime is set whenever the contents are accessed; also, it is
       set whenever mtime is set.

       Uid and gid are the names of the owner and group of the file;  muid  is
       the  name  of  the  user  that  last modified the file (setting mtime).
       Groups are also users, but each server is free to associate a  list  of
       users  with  any  user name g, and that list is the set of users in the
       group g.  When an initial attachment is made  to  a  server,  the  user
       string  in  the process group is communicated to the server.  Thus, the
       server knows, for any given file access, whether the accessing  process
       is the owner of, or in the group of, the file.  This selects which sets
       of three bits in mode is used to check permissions.

       Only some of the fields may be changed with the wstat calls.  The  name
       can be changed by anyone with write permission in the parent directory.
       The mode and mtime can be changed by the owner or the group  leader  of
       the file's current group.  The gid can be changed: by the owner if also
       a member of the new group; or by the group leader of the file's current
       group  if  also leader of the new group (see intro(5) for more informa‐
       tion about permissions and users(6) for users and groups).  The  length
       can  be changed by anyone with write permission, provided the operation
       is implemented by the server.  (See intro(5)  for  permission  informa‐
       tion, and users(6) for user and group information).

       Special  values  in the fields of the Dir passed to wstat indicate that
       the field is not intended to be changed by the call.   The  values  are
       the  maximum  unsigned  integer of appropriate size for integral values
       (usually ~0, but beware of conversions and size mismatches when compar‐
       ing values) and the empty or nil string for string values.  The routine
       nulldir initializes all the elements of d to these ``don't care''  val‐
       ues.   Thus  one  may change the mode, for example, by using nulldir to
       initialize a Dir, then setting the mode, and then doing  wstat;  it  is
       not necessary to use stat to retrieve the initial values first.

SOURCE
       /sys/src/libc/9syscall
              for the non-dir routines

       /sys/src/libc/9sys
              for the routines prefixed dir

SEE ALSO
       intro(2), fcall(2), dirread(2), stat(5)

DIAGNOSTICS
       The  dir  functions return a pointer to the data for a successful call,
       or nil on error.  The others return the number of bytes copied on  suc‐
       cess, or -1 on error.  All set errstr.

       If the buffer for stat or fstat is too short for the returned data, the
       return value will be BIT16SZ (see fcall(2)) and the two bytes  returned
       will  contain  the  initial  count field of the returned data; retrying
       with nedir equal to that value plus  BIT16SZ  (for  the  count  itself)
       should succeed.



                                                                       STAT(2)