FILE_INFO

The FILE_INFO function returns status information about a specified file.

Syntax

Result = FILE_INFO(Path [, /NOEXPAND_PATH] )

Return Value

The FILE_INFO function returns a structure expression of type FILE_INFO containing status information about the specified file or files. The result will contain one structure for each element in the Path argument.

Fields of the FILE_INFO Structure

The FILE_INFO structure consists of the following fields:

Table 8-2: Fields of the FILE_INFO Structure
Field Name	Meaning
NAME	The name of the file.
EXISTS	True (1) if the file exists. False (0) if it does not exist.
READ	True (1) if the file is exists and is readable by the user. False (0) if it is not readable.
WRITE	True (1) if the file exists and is writable by the user. False (0) if it is not writable.
EXECUTE	True (1) if the file exists and is executable by the user. False (0) if it is not executable. The source of this information differs between operating systems: UNIX: IDL checks the execute bit maintained by the operating system. Microsoft Windows: The determination is made on the basis of the file name extension (e.g. .exe).
REGULAR	True (1) if the file exists and is a regular disk file and not a directory, pipe, socket, or other special file type. False (0) if it is not a regular disk file (it maybe a directory, pipe, socket, or other special file type).
DIRECTORY	True (1) if the file exists and is a directory. False (0) if it is not a directory.
BLOCK_SPECIAL	True (1) if the file exists and is a UNIX block special device. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
CHARACTER_SPECIAL	True (1) if the file exists and is a UNIX character special device. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
NAMED_PIPE	True (1) if the file exists and is a UNIX named pipe (fifo) device. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
SETGID	True (1) if the file exists and has its Set-Group-ID bit set. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
SETUID	True (1) if the file exists and has its Set-User-ID bit set. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
SOCKET	True (1) if the file exists and is a UNIX domain socket. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
STICKY_BIT	True (1) if the file exists and has its sticky bit set. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
SYMLINK	True (1) if the file exists and is a UNIX symbolic link. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
DANGLING_SYMLINK	True (1) if the file exists and is a UNIX symbolic link that points at a non-existent file. On non-UNIX operating systems, this field will always be False (0).
ATIME, CTIME, MTIME	The date of last access, date of file status change, and date of last modification given in seconds since 1 January 1970 UTC. Use the SYSTIME function to convert these dates into a textual representation. On Windows platforms the CTIME field will contain the file creation time. On Unix platforms the CTIME field will contain the time of the last file status change. Note that some file systems do not maintain all of these dates (e.g. MS DOS FAT file systems), and may return 0. On some non-UNIX operating systems, access time is not maintained, and ATIME and MTIME will always return the same date.
SIZE	The current length of the file in bytes. If Path is not to a regular file (possibly to a directory, pipe, socket, or other special file type), the value of SIZE will not contain any useful information.

Arguments

Path

A string or string array containing the path or paths to the file or files about which information is required.

Note
Windows platforms have a file name length limit of 260 characters, while Unix platforms have a limit of 1024 characters. File names longer than this limit will return a structure with the EXISTS field set to zero.

Keywords

NOEXPAND_PATH

If specified, FILE_INFO uses Path exactly as specified, without applying the usual file path expansion.

Examples

To get information on the file dist.pro within the IDL User Library:

HELP,/STRUCTURE, FILE_INFO(FILEPATH('dist.pro', $
SUBDIRECTORY = 'lib'))

Executing the above command will produce output similar to:

** Structure FILE_INFO, 21 tags, length=72: 
NAME                STRING   '/usr/local/itt/idl/lib/dist.pro' 
EXISTS              BYTE         1 
READ                BYTE         1 
WRITE               BYTE         0 
EXECUTE             BYTE         0 
REGULAR             BYTE         1 
DIRECTORY           BYTE         0 
BLOCK_SPECIAL       BYTE         0 
CHARACTER_SPECIAL   BYTE         0 
NAMED_PIPE          BYTE         0 
SETGID              BYTE         0 
SETUID              BYTE         0 
SOCKET              BYTE         0 
STICKY_BIT          BYTE         0 
SYMLINK             BYTE         0 
DANGLING_SYMLINK    BYTE         0 
MODE                LONG         420 
ATIME               LONG64       970241431 
CTIME               LONG64       970241595 
MTIME               LONG64       969980845 
SIZE                LONG64       1717

Version History


5.5	Introduced