=over

=item stat FILEHANDLE

=item stat EXPR

=item stat

Returns a 13-element list giving the status info for a file, either
the file opened via FILEHANDLE, or named by EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted,
it stats C<$_>.  Returns a null list if the stat fails.  Typically used
as follows:

    ($dev,$ino,$mode,$nlink,$uid,$gid,$rdev,$size,
       $atime,$mtime,$ctime,$blksize,$blocks)
           = stat($filename);

Not all fields are supported on all filesystem types.  Here are the
meaning of the fields:

  0 dev      device number of filesystem
  1 ino      inode number
  2 mode     file mode  (type and permissions)
  3 nlink    number of (hard) links to the file
  4 uid      numeric user ID of file's owner
  5 gid      numeric group ID of file's owner
  6 rdev     the device identifier (special files only)
  7 size     total size of file, in bytes
  8 atime    last access time since the epoch
  9 mtime    last modify time since the epoch
 10 ctime    inode change time (NOT creation time!) since the epoch
 11 blksize  preferred block size for file system I/O
 12 blocks   actual number of blocks allocated

(The epoch was at 00:00 January 1, 1970 GMT.)

If stat is passed the special filehandle consisting of an underline, no
stat is done, but the current contents of the stat structure from the
last stat or filetest are returned.  Example:

    if (-x $file && (($d) = stat(_)) && $d < 0) {
	print "$file is executable NFS file\n";
    }

(This works on machines only for which the device number is negative under NFS.)

Because the mode contains both the file type and its permissions, you
should mask off the file type portion and (s)printf using a C<"%o"> 
if you want to see the real permissions.

    $mode = (stat($filename))[2];
    printf "Permissions are %04o\n", $mode & 07777;

In scalar context, C<stat()> returns a boolean value indicating success
or failure, and, if successful, sets the information associated with
the special filehandle C<_>.

The File::stat module provides a convenient, by-name access mechanism:

    use File::stat;
    $sb = stat($filename);
    printf "File is %s, size is %s, perm %04o, mtime %s\n", 
	$filename, $sb->size, $sb->mode & 07777,
	scalar localtime $sb->mtime;

=back