path: root/man2/statx.2

'\" t
.\" Copyright (c) 2017 David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
.\"
.\" Derived from the stat.2 manual page:
.\"   Copyright (c) 1992 Drew Eckhardt (drew@cs.colorado.edu), March 28, 1992
.\"   Parts Copyright (c) 1995 Nicolai Langfeldt (janl@ifi.uio.no), 1/1/95
.\"   and Copyright (c) 2006, 2007, 2014 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
.\"
.TH statx 2 2023-10-31 "Linux man-pages 6.7"
.SH NAME
statx \- get file status (extended)
.SH LIBRARY
Standard C library
.RI ( libc ", " \-lc )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.BR "#define _GNU_SOURCE          " "/* See feature_test_macros(7) */"
.BR "#include <fcntl.h>           " "/* Definition of " AT_* " constants */"
.B #include <sys/stat.h>
.P
.BI "int statx(int " dirfd ", const char *restrict " pathname ", int " flags ,
.BI "          unsigned int " mask ", struct statx *restrict " statxbuf );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
This function returns information about a file, storing it in the buffer
pointed to by
.IR statxbuf .
The returned buffer is a structure of the following type:
.P
.in +4n
.EX
struct statx {
    __u32 stx_mask;        /* Mask of bits indicating
                              filled fields */
    __u32 stx_blksize;     /* Block size for filesystem I/O */
    __u64 stx_attributes;  /* Extra file attribute indicators */
    __u32 stx_nlink;       /* Number of hard links */
    __u32 stx_uid;         /* User ID of owner */
    __u32 stx_gid;         /* Group ID of owner */
    __u16 stx_mode;        /* File type and mode */
    __u64 stx_ino;         /* Inode number */
    __u64 stx_size;        /* Total size in bytes */
    __u64 stx_blocks;      /* Number of 512B blocks allocated */
    __u64 stx_attributes_mask;
                           /* Mask to show what\[aq]s supported
                              in stx_attributes */
\&
    /* The following fields are file timestamps */
    struct statx_timestamp stx_atime;  /* Last access */
    struct statx_timestamp stx_btime;  /* Creation */
    struct statx_timestamp stx_ctime;  /* Last status change */
    struct statx_timestamp stx_mtime;  /* Last modification */
\&
    /* If this file represents a device, then the next two
       fields contain the ID of the device */
    __u32 stx_rdev_major;  /* Major ID */
    __u32 stx_rdev_minor;  /* Minor ID */
\&
    /* The next two fields contain the ID of the device
       containing the filesystem where the file resides */
    __u32 stx_dev_major;   /* Major ID */
    __u32 stx_dev_minor;   /* Minor ID */
\&
    __u64 stx_mnt_id;      /* Mount ID */
\&
    /* Direct I/O alignment restrictions */
    __u32 stx_dio_mem_align;
    __u32 stx_dio_offset_align;
};
.EE
.in
.P
The file timestamps are structures of the following type:
.P
.in +4n
.EX
struct statx_timestamp {
    __s64 tv_sec;    /* Seconds since the Epoch (UNIX time) */
    __u32 tv_nsec;   /* Nanoseconds since tv_sec */
};
.EE
.in
.P
(Note that reserved space and padding is omitted.)
.SS
Invoking \fBstatx\fR():
To access a file's status, no permissions are required on the file itself,
but in the case of
.BR statx ()
with a pathname,
execute (search) permission is required on all of the directories in
.I pathname
that lead to the file.
.P
.BR statx ()
uses
.IR pathname ,
.IR dirfd ,
and
.I flags
to identify the target file in one of the following ways:
.TP
An absolute pathname
If
.I pathname
begins with a slash,
then it is an absolute pathname that identifies the target file.
In this case,
.I dirfd
is ignored.
.TP
A relative pathname
If
.I pathname
is a string that begins with a character other than a slash and
.I dirfd
is
.BR AT_FDCWD ,
then
.I pathname
is a relative pathname that is interpreted relative to the process's
current working directory.
.TP
A directory-relative pathname
If
.I pathname
is a string that begins with a character other than a slash and
.I dirfd
is a file descriptor that refers to a directory, then
.I pathname
is a relative pathname that is interpreted relative to the directory
referred to by
.IR dirfd .
(See
.BR openat (2)
for an explanation of why this is useful.)
.TP
By file descriptor
If
.I pathname
is an empty string and the
.B AT_EMPTY_PATH
flag is specified in
.I flags
(see below),
then the target file is the one referred to by the file descriptor
.IR dirfd .
.P
.I flags
can be used to influence a pathname-based lookup.
A value for
.I flags
is constructed by ORing together zero or more of the following constants:
.TP
.B AT_EMPTY_PATH
.\" commit 65cfc6722361570bfe255698d9cd4dccaf47570d
If
.I pathname
is an empty string, operate on the file referred to by
.I dirfd
(which may have been obtained using the
.BR open (2)
.B O_PATH
flag).
In this case,
.I dirfd
can refer to any type of file, not just a directory.
.IP
If
.I dirfd
is
.BR AT_FDCWD ,
the call operates on the current working directory.
.TP
.B AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT
Don't automount the terminal ("basename") component of
.I pathname
if it is a directory that is an automount point.
This allows the caller to gather attributes of an automount point
(rather than the location it would mount).
This flag has no effect if the mount point has already been mounted over.
.IP
The
.B AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT
flag can be used in tools that scan directories
to prevent mass-automounting of a directory of automount points.
.IP
All of
.BR stat (2),
.BR lstat (2),
and
.BR fstatat (2)
act as though
.B AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT
was set.
.TP
.B AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
If
.I pathname
is a symbolic link, do not dereference it:
instead return information about the link itself, like
.BR lstat (2).
.P
.I flags
can also be used to control what sort of synchronization the kernel will do
when querying a file on a remote filesystem.
This is done by ORing in one of the following values:
.TP
.B AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT
Do whatever
.BR stat (2)
does.
This is the default and is very much filesystem-specific.
.TP
.B AT_STATX_FORCE_SYNC
Force the attributes to be synchronized with the server.
This may require that
a network filesystem perform a data writeback to get the timestamps correct.
.TP
.B AT_STATX_DONT_SYNC
Don't synchronize anything, but rather just take whatever
the system has cached if possible.
This may mean that the information returned is approximate, but,
on a network filesystem, it may not involve a round trip to the server - even
if no lease is held.
.P
The
.I mask
argument to
.BR statx ()
is used to tell the kernel which fields the caller is interested in.
.I mask
is an ORed combination of the following constants:
.P
.in +4n
.TS
lB l.
STATX_TYPE	Want stx_mode & S_IFMT
STATX_MODE	Want stx_mode & \[ti]S_IFMT
STATX_NLINK	Want stx_nlink
STATX_UID	Want stx_uid
STATX_GID	Want stx_gid
STATX_ATIME	Want stx_atime
STATX_MTIME	Want stx_mtime
STATX_CTIME	Want stx_ctime
STATX_INO	Want stx_ino
STATX_SIZE	Want stx_size
STATX_BLOCKS	Want stx_blocks
STATX_BASIC_STATS	[All of the above]
STATX_BTIME	Want stx_btime
STATX_ALL	The same as STATX_BASIC_STATS | STATX_BTIME.
	It is deprecated and should not be used.
STATX_MNT_ID	Want stx_mnt_id (since Linux 5.8)
STATX_DIOALIGN	Want stx_dio_mem_align and stx_dio_offset_align
	(since Linux 6.1; support varies by filesystem)
.TE
.in
.P
Note that, in general, the kernel does
.I not
reject values in
.I mask
other than the above.
(For an exception, see
.B EINVAL
in errors.)
Instead, it simply informs the caller which values are supported
by this kernel and filesystem via the
.I statx.stx_mask
field.
Therefore,
.I "do not"
simply set
.I mask
to
.B UINT_MAX
(all bits set),
as one or more bits may, in the future, be used to specify an
extension to the buffer.
.SS
The returned information
The status information for the target file is returned in the
.I statx
structure pointed to by
.IR statxbuf .
Included in this is
.I stx_mask
which indicates what other information has been returned.
.I stx_mask
has the same format as the
.I mask
argument and bits are set in it to indicate
which fields have been filled in.
.P
It should be noted that the kernel may return fields that weren't
requested and may fail to return fields that were requested,
depending on what the backing filesystem supports.
(Fields that are given values despite being unrequested can just be ignored.)
In either case,
.I stx_mask
will not be equal
.IR mask .
.P
If a filesystem does not support a field or if it has
an unrepresentable value (for instance, a file with an exotic type),
then the mask bit corresponding to that field will be cleared in
.I stx_mask
even if the user asked for it and a dummy value will be filled in for
compatibility purposes if one is available (e.g., a dummy UID and GID may be
specified to mount under some circumstances).
.P
A filesystem may also fill in fields that the caller didn't ask for if it has
values for them available and the information is available at no extra cost.
If this happens, the corresponding bits will be set in
.IR stx_mask .
.P
.\" Background: inode attributes are modified with i_mutex held, but
.\" read by stat() without taking the mutex.
.IR Note :
for performance and simplicity reasons, different fields in the
.I statx
structure may contain state information from different moments
during the execution of the system call.
For example, if
.I stx_mode
or
.I stx_uid
is changed by another process by calling
.BR chmod (2)
or
.BR chown (2),
.BR stat ()
might return the old
.I stx_mode
together with the new
.IR stx_uid ,
or the old
.I stx_uid
together with the new
.IR stx_mode .
.P
Apart from
.I stx_mask
(which is described above), the fields in the
.I statx
structure are:
.TP
.I stx_blksize
The "preferred" block size for efficient filesystem I/O.
(Writing to a file in
smaller chunks may cause an inefficient read-modify-rewrite.)
.TP
.I stx_attributes
Further status information about the file (see below for more information).
.TP
.I stx_nlink
The number of hard links on a file.
.TP
.I stx_uid
This field contains the user ID of the owner of the file.
.TP
.I stx_gid
This field contains the ID of the group owner of the file.
.TP
.I stx_mode
The file type and mode.
See
.BR inode (7)
for details.
.TP
.I stx_ino
The inode number of the file.
.TP
.I stx_size
The size of the file (if it is a regular file or a symbolic link) in bytes.
The size of a symbolic link is the length of the pathname it contains,
without a terminating null byte.
.TP
.I stx_blocks
The number of blocks allocated to the file on the medium, in 512-byte units.
(This may be smaller than
.IR stx_size /512
when the file has holes.)
.TP
.I stx_attributes_mask
A mask indicating which bits in
.I stx_attributes
are supported by the VFS and the filesystem.
.TP
.I stx_atime
The file's last access timestamp.
.TP
.I stx_btime
The file's creation timestamp.
.TP
.I stx_ctime
The file's last status change timestamp.
.TP
.I stx_mtime
The file's last modification timestamp.
.TP
.IR stx_dev_major " and "  stx_dev_minor
The device on which this file (inode) resides.
.TP
.IR stx_rdev_major " and "  stx_rdev_minor
The device that this file (inode) represents if the file is of block or
character device type.
.TP
.I stx_mnt_id
.\" commit fa2fcf4f1df1559a0a4ee0f46915b496cc2ebf60
The mount ID of the mount containing the file.
This is the same number reported by
.BR name_to_handle_at (2)
and corresponds to the number in the first field in one of the records in
.IR /proc/self/mountinfo .
.TP
.I stx_dio_mem_align
The alignment (in bytes) required for user memory buffers for direct I/O
.RB ( O_DIRECT )
on this file,
or 0 if direct I/O is not supported on this file.
.IP
.B STATX_DIOALIGN
.RI ( stx_dio_mem_align
and
.IR stx_dio_offset_align )
is supported on block devices since Linux 6.1.
The support on regular files varies by filesystem;
it is supported by ext4, f2fs, and xfs since Linux 6.1.
.TP
.I stx_dio_offset_align
The alignment (in bytes) required for file offsets and I/O segment lengths
for direct I/O
.RB ( O_DIRECT )
on this file,
or 0 if direct I/O is not supported on this file.
This will only be nonzero if
.I stx_dio_mem_align
is nonzero, and vice versa.
.P
For further information on the above fields, see
.BR inode (7).
.\"
.SS File attributes
The
.I stx_attributes
field contains a set of ORed flags that indicate additional attributes
of the file.
Note that any attribute that is not indicated as supported by
.I stx_attributes_mask
has no usable value here.
The bits in
.I stx_attributes_mask
correspond bit-by-bit to
.IR stx_attributes .
.P
The flags are as follows:
.TP
.B STATX_ATTR_COMPRESSED
The file is compressed by the filesystem and may take extra resources
to access.
.TP
.B STATX_ATTR_IMMUTABLE
The file cannot be modified: it cannot be deleted or renamed,
no hard links can be created to this file and no data can be written to it.
See
.BR chattr (1).
.TP
.B STATX_ATTR_APPEND
The file can only be opened in append mode for writing.
Random access writing
is not permitted.
See
.BR chattr (1).
.TP
.B STATX_ATTR_NODUMP
File is not a candidate for backup when a backup program such as
.BR dump (8)
is run.
See
.BR chattr (1).
.TP
.B STATX_ATTR_ENCRYPTED
A key is required for the file to be encrypted by the filesystem.
.TP
.BR STATX_ATTR_VERITY " (since Linux 5.5)"
.\" commit 3ad2522c64cff1f5aebb987b00683268f0cc7c29
The file has fs-verity enabled.
It cannot be written to, and all reads from it will be verified
against a cryptographic hash that covers the
entire file (e.g., via a Merkle tree).
.TP
.BR STATX_ATTR_DAX " (since Linux 5.8)"
The file is in the DAX (cpu direct access) state.
DAX state attempts to
minimize software cache effects for both I/O and memory mappings of this file.
It requires a file system which has been configured to support DAX.
.IP
DAX generally assumes all accesses are via CPU load / store instructions
which can minimize overhead for small accesses,
but may adversely affect CPU utilization for large transfers.
.IP
File I/O is done directly to/from user-space buffers and memory mapped I/O may
be performed with direct memory mappings that bypass the kernel page cache.
.IP
While the DAX property tends to result in data being transferred synchronously,
it does not give the same guarantees as the
.B O_SYNC
flag (see
.BR open (2)),
where data and the necessary metadata are transferred together.
.IP
A DAX file may support being mapped with the
.B MAP_SYNC
flag, which enables a
program to use CPU cache flush instructions to persist CPU store operations
without an explicit
.BR fsync (2).
See
.BR mmap (2)
for more information.
.TP
.BR STATX_ATTR_MOUNT_ROOT " (since Linux 5.8)"
.\" commit 80340fe3605c0e78cfe496c3b3878be828cfdbfe
The file is the root of a mount.
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success, zero is returned.
On error, \-1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set to indicate the error.
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EACCES
Search permission is denied for one of the directories
in the path prefix of
.IR pathname .
(See also
.BR path_resolution (7).)
.TP
.B EBADF
.I pathname
is relative but
.I dirfd
is neither
.B AT_FDCWD
nor a valid file descriptor.
.TP
.B EFAULT
.I pathname
or
.I statxbuf
is NULL or points to a location outside the process's
accessible address space.
.TP
.B EINVAL
Invalid flag specified in
.IR flags .
.TP
.B EINVAL
Reserved flag specified in
.IR mask .
(Currently, there is one such flag, designated by the constant
.BR STATX__RESERVED ,
with the value 0x80000000U.)
.TP
.B ELOOP
Too many symbolic links encountered while traversing the pathname.
.TP
.B ENAMETOOLONG
.I pathname
is too long.
.TP
.B ENOENT
A component of
.I pathname
does not exist, or
.I pathname
is an empty string and
.B AT_EMPTY_PATH
was not specified in
.IR flags .
.TP
.B ENOMEM
Out of memory (i.e., kernel memory).
.TP
.B ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix of
.I pathname
is not a directory or
.I pathname
is relative and
.I dirfd
is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.
.SH STANDARDS
Linux.
.SH HISTORY
Linux 4.11,
glibc 2.28.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR ls (1),
.BR stat (1),
.BR access (2),
.BR chmod (2),
.BR chown (2),
.BR name_to_handle_at (2),
.BR readlink (2),
.BR stat (2),
.BR utime (2),
.BR proc (5),
.BR capabilities (7),
.BR inode (7),
.BR symlink (7)