Interpreting os.lstat()

[Sion Arrowsmith]

Adrian Petrescu  <apetresc at uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>>>> print os.stat.__doc__
>stat(path) -> stat result
>
>Perform a stat system call on the given path.
>
>I checked the online Python documentation at http://python.org/doc/1.5.2/lib/module-stat.html

Someone else has already pointed out that this is hopelessly out of
date. Even if you are constrained to using 1.5.2, the current
documentation at least tells you what the elements of the tuple are.

>but it just says to "consult the documentation for your system.". At
>this point I'm guessing that os.lstat is nothing more than a wrapper
>for some Linux system call, so I looked up the results of running
>'stat' on the same file, [ ... ]

(a) Running 'stat' is *not the same* as a system call.

(b) "Consult[ing] the documentation" may be more productive than
running random(ish) programs. You should find

$ man 2 stat

informative.

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