perl function lstat

In Perl, the lstat function is used to get the file status information for a file specified by a symbolic link. It returns an array containing the same information as stat, but for the symbolic link itself, rather than the file to which the link refers.

Here's an example that demonstrates how to use lstat:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

# Get the file status information for a symbolic link
my @stat_info = lstat("symbolic_link.txt");

# Print the file type and permissions
my $mode = $stat_info[2] & 07777;
print "File type and permissions: $mode\n";

# Print the size of the file
my $size = $stat_info[7];
print "File size: $size bytes\n";

In this example, we use the lstat function to get the file status information for a symbolic link named symbolic_link.txt. We store the information in an array named @stat_info.

We then use the bitwise AND operator to extract the file mode information from the third element of @stat_info, which contains the same information as the second element of the array returned by stat. We mask off the high-order bits using the octal value 07777 (which corresponds to a binary value of 111111111111), leaving only the file type and permissions.

Finally, we print the file type and permissions using the print function, and then print the size of the file using the eighth element of @stat_info.

Note that lstat is similar to the stat function, but it returns information about the symbolic link itself rather than the file to which the link refers. If you want to get information about the file to which a symbolic link refers, use stat instead.