Python os.lstat() Method

Description

Python method lstat() is very similar to fstat() and returns the information about a file, but do not follow symbolic links. This is an alias for fstat() on platforms that do not support symbolic links, such as Windows.

Here is the structure returned by lstat method −

• st_dev − ID of device containing file

• st_ino − inode number

• st_mode − protection

• st_nlink − number of hard links

• st_uid − user ID of owner

• st_gid − group ID of owner

• st_rdev − device ID (if special file)

• st_size − total size, in bytes

• st_blksize − blocksize for filesystem I/O

• st_blocks − number of blocks allocated

• st_atime − time of last access

• st_mtime − time of last modification

• st_ctime − time of last status change

Syntax

Following is the syntax for lstat() method −

os.lstat(path)

Parameters

• path − This is the file for which information would be returned.

Return Value

This method returns the information about a file.

Example

The following example shows the usage of lstat() method.

#!/usr/bin/python

import os, sys

# Open a file
path = "/var/www/html/foo.txt"
fd = os.open( path, os.O_RDWR|os.O_CREAT )

# Close opened file
os.close( fd )

# Now get  the touple
info = os.lstat(path)

print "File Info :", info

# Now get uid of the file
print "UID of the file :%d" % info.st_uid

# Now get gid of the file
print "GID of the file :%d" % info.st_gid

When we run above program, it produces following result −

File Info : (33261, 3450178L, 103L, 1, 500, 500, 0L, 
             1238866944, 1238866944, 1238948312)
UID of the file :500
GID of the file :500