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File::stat(3)          Perl Programmers Reference Guide          File::stat(3)



NAME
       File::stat - by-name interface to Perl's built-in stat(1,2)() functions

SYNOPSIS
        use File::stat;
        $st = stat(1,2)($file(1,n)) or die "No $file: $!";
        if(3,n) ( ($st->mode & 0111) && $st->nlink > 1) ) {
            print "$file(1,n) is executable with lotsa links\n";
        }

        use File::stat qw(:FIELDS);
        stat(1,2)($file(1,n)) or die "No $file: $!";
        if(3,n) ( ($st_mode & 0111) && $st_nlink > 1) ) {
            print "$file(1,n) is executable with lotsa links\n";
        }

DESCRIPTION
       This module's default exports override the core stat(1,2)() and lstat()
       functions, replacing them with versions that return "File::stat"
       objects.  This object has methods that return the similarly named(5,8)
       structure field name from the stat(1,2)(2) function; namely, dev, ino, mode,
       nlink, uid, gid, rdev, size, atime, mtime, ctime, blksize, and blocks.

       You may also import all the structure fields directly into your names-
       pace as regular variables using the :FIELDS import tag.  (Note that
       this still overrides your stat(1,2)() and lstat() functions.)  Access these
       fields as variables named(5,8) with a preceding "st_" in(1,8) front their method
       names.  Thus, "$stat_obj->dev()" corresponds to $st_dev if(3,n) you import
       the fields.

       To access(2,5) this functionality without the core overrides, pass the "use"
       an empty import list, and then access(2,5) function functions with their
       full qualified names.  On the other hand, the built-ins are still
       available via the "CORE::" pseudo-package.

BUGS
       As of Perl 5.8.0 after using this module you cannot use the implicit $_
       or the special filehandle "_" with stat(1,2)() or lstat(), trying to do so
       leads into strange errors.  The workaround is for $_ to be explicit

           my $stat_obj = stat(1,2) $_;

       and for "_" to explicitly populate the object using the unexported and
       undocumented(2,3) populate() function with CORE::stat():

           my $stat_obj = File::stat::populate(CORE::stat(_));

NOTE
       While this class is currently implemented using the Class::Struct mod-
       ule to build a struct-like class, you shouldn't rely upon this.

AUTHOR
       Tom Christiansen



perl v5.8.5                       2001-09-21                     File::stat(3)