When a program calls the stat( ) function for a given file, the system returns a structure that provides information about the file. The specific details of the structure should be obtained from the implementation of your platform, but the basic outline of the structure is as follows:
struct stat { dev_t st_dev; /* device of inode */ inot_t st_ino; /* inode number */ short st_mode; /* mode bits */ short st_nlink; /* number of links to file /* short st_uid; /* owner’s user id */ short st_gid; /* owner’s group id */ dev_t st_rdev; /* for special files */ off_t st_size; /* file size in characters */ time_t st_atime; /* time last accessed */ time_t st_mtime; /* time last modified */ time_t st_ctime; /* time inode last changed*/ } |
The elements that are most significant for server plug-in API activities are st_size, st_atime, st_mtime, and st_ctime.