Reference: stat
Author: Ellen Siever, Stephen Spainhour & Nathan Patwardhan
Date: 1999-07-02T01:38:21Z

#

| Chapter 5 Function Reference |

## stat

    stat file

Returns a 13-element list giving the statistics for a file, indicated by either a filehandle or an expression that gives its name. It's typically used as follows:

>     ($dev,$ino,$mode,$nlink,$uid,$gid,$rdev,$size,
>         $atime,$mtime,$ctime,$blksize,$blocks)
>                 = stat $filename;

Not all fields are supported on all filesystem types. Here are the meanings of the fields:

Field | Meaning
--- | ---
`dev` | Device number of filesystem
`ino` | Inode number
`mode` | File mode (type and permissions)
`nlink` | Number of (hard) links to the file
`uid` | Numeric user ID of file's owner
`gid` | Numeric group ID of file's owner
`rdev` | The device identifier (special files only)
`size` | Total size of file, in bytes
`atime` | Last access time since the epoch
`mtime` | Last modification time since the epoch
`ctime` | Inode change time (not creation time!) since the epoch
`blksize` | Preferred blocksize for file system I/O
`blocks` | Actual number of blocks allocated

`$dev` and `$ino`, taken together, uniquely identify a file. The `$blksize` and `$blocks` are likely defined only on BSD-derived filesystems. The `$blocks` field (if defined) is reported in 512-byte blocks. Note that `$blocks*512` can differ greatly from `$size` for files containing unallocated blocks, or "holes," which aren't counted in `$blocks`.

If `stat` is passed the special filehandle consisting of an underline, no actual `stat` is done, but the current contents of the `stat` structure from the last `stat` or `stat`-based file test (the `-x` operators) is returned.

Reference: srand |  | Reference: study