Stat ( ) System Call in C Program with Examples

by

stat():

This function return information about a file.

a stat structure, which contains the following fields:

struct stat {
    dev_t     st_dev;     /* ID of device containing file */
    ino_t     st_ino;     /* inode number */
    mode_t    st_mode;    /* protection */
    nlink_t   st_nlink;   /* number of hard links */
    uid_t     st_uid;     /* user ID of owner */
    gid_t     st_gid;     /* group ID of owner */
    dev_t     st_rdev;    /* device ID (if special file) */
    off_t     st_size;    /* total size, in bytes */
    blksize_t st_blksize; /* blocksize for filesystem I/O */
    blkcnt_t  st_blocks;  /* number of blocks allocated */
    time_t    st_atime;   /* time of last access */
    time_t    st_mtime;   /* time of last modification */
    time_t    st_ctime;   /* time of last status change */
};
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

The following example shows how to use stat system call in C programming language in Linux, Ubuntu.

EXAMPLE 1:{ref: https://linuxhint.com/stat-system-call-linux/}

In the following code we are going to find the mode of a file:

Program:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<sys/stat.h>
int main()
{
  struct stat sfile; //pointer to stat struct
  stat("stat.c", &sfile); //stat system call
  printf("st_mode = %o", sfile.st_mode); //accessing st_mode (data member of stat struct)
  return 0;
}

Output:

  • In this code, we have passed the name of the file in the stat system call and then the pointer to stat struct which is sfile.
  • The pointer to stat struct is then used to access st_mode which displays the mode of the file using printf statement.
  • The header file <sys/stat.h> is used so you can use a stat system call.
  • The header file <stdio.h> is the standard input/output library file so that you can use printf or scanf in your C code.

Leave a Comment