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stat — Interpreting stat() results
Source code: Lib/stat.py
The stat
module defines constants and functions for interpreting the results of os.stat()
, os.fstat()
and os.lstat()
(if they exist). For complete details about the stat()
, fstat()
and lstat()
calls, consult the documentation for your system.
Changed in version 3.4: The stat module is backed by a C implementation.
The stat
module defines the following functions to test for specific file types:
Two additional functions are defined for more general manipulation of the file’s mode:
stat.
S_IMODE
( mode )-
Return the portion of the file’s mode that can be set by
os.chmod()
—that is, the file’s permission bits, plus the sticky bit, set-group-id, and set-user-id bits (on systems that support them).
stat.
S_IFMT
( mode )-
Return the portion of the file’s mode that describes the file type (used by the
S_IS*()
functions above).
Normally, you would use the os.path.is*()
functions for testing the type of a file; the functions here are useful when you are doing multiple tests of the same file and wish to avoid the overhead of the stat()
system call for each test. These are also useful when checking for information about a file that isn’t handled by os.path
, like the tests for block and character devices.
Example:
import os, sys
from stat import *
def walktree(top, callback):
'''recursively descend the directory tree rooted at top,
calling the callback function for each regular file'''
for f in os.listdir(top):
pathname = os.path.join(top, f)
mode = os.stat(pathname).st_mode
if S_ISDIR(mode):
# It's a directory, recurse into it
walktree(pathname, callback)
elif S_ISREG(mode):
# It's a file, call the callback function
callback(pathname)
else:
# Unknown file type, print a message
print('Skipping %s' % pathname)
def visitfile(file):
print('visiting', file)
if __name__ == '__main__':
walktree(sys.argv[1], visitfile)
An additional utility function is provided to convert a file’s mode in a human readable string:
stat.
filemode
( mode )-
Convert a file’s mode to a string of the form ‘-rwxrwxrwx’.
New in version 3.3.
All the variables below are simply symbolic indexes into the 10-tuple returned by os.stat()
, os.fstat()
or os.lstat()
.
stat.
ST_CTIME
-
The “ctime” as reported by the operating system. On some systems (like Unix) is the time of the last metadata change, and, on others (like Windows), is the creation time (see platform documentation for details).
The interpretation of “file size” changes according to the file type. For plain files this is the size of the file in bytes. For FIFOs and sockets under most flavors of Unix (including Linux in particular), the “size” is the number of bytes waiting to be read at the time of the call to os.stat()
, os.fstat()
, or os.lstat()
; this can sometimes be useful, especially for polling one of these special files after a non-blocking open. The meaning of the size field for other character and block devices varies more, depending on the implementation of the underlying system call.
The variables below define the flags used in the ST_MODE
field.
Use of the functions above is more portable than use of the first set of flags:
Note
S_IFDOOR
, S_IFPORT
or S_IFWHT
are defined as 0 when the platform does not have support for the file types.
The following flags can also be used in the mode argument of os.chmod()
:
stat.
S_ISGID
-
Set-group-ID bit. This bit has several special uses. For a directory it indicates that BSD semantics is to be used for that directory: files created there inherit their group ID from the directory, not from the effective group ID of the creating process, and directories created there will also get the
S_ISGID
bit set. For a file that does not have the group execution bit (S_IXGRP
) set, the set-group-ID bit indicates mandatory file/record locking (see alsoS_ENFMT
).
stat.
S_ISVTX
-
Sticky bit. When this bit is set on a directory it means that a file in that directory can be renamed or deleted only by the owner of the file, by the owner of the directory, or by a privileged process.
stat.
S_ENFMT
-
System V file locking enforcement. This flag is shared with
S_ISGID
: file/record locking is enforced on files that do not have the group execution bit (S_IXGRP
) set.
stat.
S_IREAD
-
Unix V7 synonym for
S_IRUSR
.
stat.
S_IWRITE
-
Unix V7 synonym for
S_IWUSR
.
stat.
S_IEXEC
-
Unix V7 synonym for
S_IXUSR
.
The following flags can be used in the flags argument of os.chflags()
:
See the *BSD or Mac OS systems man page chflags(2) for more information.
On Windows, the following file attribute constants are available for use when testing bits in the st_file_attributes
member returned by os.stat()
. See the Windows API documentation for more detail on the meaning of these constants.
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_COMPRESSED
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DEVICE
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ENCRYPTED
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_INTEGRITY_STREAM
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NOT_CONTENT_INDEXED
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NO_SCRUB_DATA
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_OFFLINE
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_REPARSE_POINT
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SPARSE_FILE
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY
stat.
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_VIRTUAL
-
New in version 3.5.
On Windows, the following constants are available for comparing against the st_reparse_tag
member returned by os.lstat()
. These are well-known constants, but are not an exhaustive list.