is a Unix system call that returns file attributes about an inode. The semantics of vary between operating systems. As an example, Unix command uses this system call to retrieve information on files that includes:
stat appeared in Version 1 Unix. It is among the few original Unix system calls to change, with Version 4's addition of group permissions and larger file size.[1]
The C POSIX library header, found on POSIX and other Unix-like operating systems, declares the stat functions, as well as related functions called fstat and lstat. The functions take a pointer to a struct stat buffer argument, which is used to return the file attributes. On success, the functions return zero, and on error, −1 is returned and errno is set appropriately.
The stat and lstat functions take a filename argument. If the file is a symbolic link, stat returns attributes of the eventual target of the link, while lstat returns attributes of the link itself. The fstat function takes a file descriptor argument instead, and returns attributes of the file that it identifies.
The family of functions was extended to implement large file support. Functions named stat64, lstat64 and fstat64 return attributes in a struct stat64 structure, which represents file sizes with a 64-bit type, allowing the functions to work on files 2 GiB and larger (up to 8 EiB). When the _FILE_OFFSET_BITS macro is defined to 64, these 64-bit functions are available under the original names.
The functions are defined as:
This structure is defined in header file as follows, although implementations are free to define additional fields:
POSIX.1 does not require st_rdev, st_blocks and st_blksize members; these fields are defined as part of XSI option in the Single Unix Specification.
In older versions of POSIX.1 standard, the time-related fields were defined as st_atime, st_mtime and st_ctime, and were of type time_t. Since the 2008 version of the standard, these fields were renamed to st_atim, st_mtim and st_ctim, respectively, of type struct timespec, since this structure provides a higher resolution time unit. For the sake of compatibility, implementations can define the old names in terms of the tv_sec member of struct timespec. For example, st_atime can be defined as st_atim.tv_sec.
The struct stat structure includes at least the following members:
st_dev identifier of device containing filest_ino inode numberst_mode protection mode; see also Unix permissionsst_nlink reference count of hard linksst_uid user identifier of ownerst_gid group identifier of ownerst_rdev device identifier (if special file)st_size total file size, in bytesst_atime time of last accessst_mtime time of last modificationst_ctime time of last status changest_blksize preferred block size for file system I/O, which can depend upon both the system and the type of file system[2]st_blocks number of blocks allocated in multiples of DEV_BSIZE (usually 512 bytes).The st_mode field is a bit field. It combines the file access modes and also indicates any special file type. There are many macros to work with the different mode flags and file types.
Reading a file changes its eventually requiring a disk write, which has been criticized as it is inconsistent with a read only file system. File system cache may significantly reduce this activity to one disk write per cache flush.
Linux kernel developer Ingo Molnár publicly criticized the concept and performance impact of atime in 2007,[3] [4] and in 2009, the mount option had become the default, which addresses this criticism.[5] The behavior behind the mount option offers sufficient performance for most purposes and should not break any significant applications, as it has been extensively discussed.[6] Initially, only updated atime if atime < mtime or atime < ctime; that was subsequently modified to update atimes that were 24 hours old or older, so that and Debian's popularity counter (popcon) would behave properly.[7]
Current versions of the Linux kernel support four mount options, which can be specified in fstab:
Current versions of Linux, macOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, and NetBSD support a mount option in /etc/fstab, which causes the atime field never to be updated. Turning off atime updating breaks POSIX compliance, and some applications, such as mbox-driven "new mail" notifications,[8] and some file usage watching utilities, notably tmpwatch.
The option on OpenBSD behaves more like Linux .[9]
Version 4.0 of the Linux kernel mainline, which was released on April 12, 2015, introduced the new mount option . It allows POSIX-style atime updates to be performed in-memory and flushed to disk together with some non-time-related I/O operations on the same file; atime updates are also flushed to disk when some of the sync system calls are executed, or before the file's in-memory inode is evicted from the filesystem cache. Additionally, it is possible to configure for how long atime modifications can remain unflushed. That way, lazytime retains POSIX compatibility while offering performance improvements.[10] [11]
It is tempting to believe that originally meant creation time;[12] however, while early Unix did have modification and creation times, the latter was changed to be access time before there was any C structure in which to call anything . The file systems retained just the access time and modification time through 6th edition Unix. The timestamp was added in the file system restructuring that occurred with Version 7 Unix, and has always referred to inode change time. It is updated any time file metadata stored in the inode changes, such as file permissions, file ownership, and creation and deletion of hard links. POSIX also mandates (last status change) update with nonzero (file modification).[13] In some implementations, is affected by renaming a file, despite filenames not being stored in inodes: Both original Unix, which implemented a renaming by making a link (updating) and then unlinking the old name (updating again) and modern Linux tend to do this.
Unlike and, cannot be set to an arbitrary value with, as used by the utility, for example. Instead, when is used, or for any other change to the inode other than an update to caused byaccessing the file, the value is set to the current time.
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