file::stat(3)

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

use File::stat;
$st = stat($file) or die "No $file: $!";
if ( ($st->mode & 0111) && $st->nlink > 1) ) {
    print "$file is executable with lotsa links0;
}
use File::stat qw(:FIELDS);
stat($file) or die "No $file: $!";
if ( ($st_mode & 0111) && $st_nlink > 1) ) {
    print "$file is executable with lotsa links0;
}

DESCRIPTION

This module's default exports override the core stat() and lstat() functions, replacing them with versions that
return "File::stat" objects. This object has methods that
return the similarly named structure field name from the
stat(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 namespace as regular variables using the :FIELDS
import tag. (Note that this still overrides your stat()
and lstat() functions.) Access these fields as variables named with a preceding "st_" in front their method names.
Thus, "$stat_obj->dev()" corresponds to $st_dev if you
import the fields.

To access this functionality without the core overrides,
pass the "use" an empty import list, and then access func
tion 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()
or lstat(), trying to do so leads into strange errors.
The workaround is for $_ to be explicit

my $stat_obj = stat $_;

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

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

NOTE

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

AUTHOR

Tom Christiansen

perl v5.8.0 2002-06-01 File::stat(3)