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  <refentry id="function.lstat">
   <refnamediv>
    <refname>lstat</refname>
    <refpurpose>Gives information about a file or symbolic link</refpurpose>
   </refnamediv>
   <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>
     <methodsynopsis>
      <type>array</type><methodname>lstat</methodname>
      <methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>filename</parameter></methodparam>
     </methodsynopsis>
    <para>
     Gathers the statistics of the file or symbolic link named by
     filename.  This function is identical to the
     <function>stat</function> function except that if the
     <parameter>filename</parameter> parameter is a symbolic link, the
     status of the symbolic link is returned, not the status of the
     file pointed to by the symbolic link.
    </para>
    <para>
     Returns an array with the statistics of the file with the
     following elements:
     <orderedlist>
      <listitem><simpara>device</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>inode</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>inode protection mode</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>number of links</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>user id of owner</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>group id owner</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>device type if inode device *</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>size in bytes</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>time of last access</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>time of last modification</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>time of last change</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>blocksize for filesystem I/O *</simpara></listitem>
      <listitem><simpara>number of blocks allocated</simpara></listitem>
     </orderedlist>
     * - only valid on systems supporting the st_blksize type--other
     systems (i.e. Windows) return -1.
    </para>
    <para>
     <function>lstat</function> cannot be used on <link
     linkend="features.remote-files">remote files</link>.
    </para>
    <para>
     The results of this function are cached. See
     <function>clearstatcache</function> for more details.
    </para>
   </refsect1>
  </refentry>

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