Subject: Re: bug#10173: 24.0.50; TRAMP sudo method not working on OS X

From: Michael Welsh Duggan <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:52:03 -0500

Here is the man page for stat on that machine:

STAT(1)                   BSD General Commands Manual                  STAT(1)

NNAAMMEE
     rreeaaddlliinnkk, ssttaatt -- display file status

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
     ssttaatt [--FFLLnnqq] [--ff _f_o_r_m_a_t | --ll | --rr | --ss | --xx] [--tt _t_i_m_e_f_m_t] [_f_i_l_e _._._.]
     rreeaaddlliinnkk [--nn] [_f_i_l_e _._._.]

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
     The ssttaatt utility displays information about the file pointed to by _f_i_l_e.
     Read, write or execute permissions of the named file are not required,
     but all directories listed in the path name leading to the file must be
     searchable.  If no argument is given, ssttaatt displays information about the
     file descriptor for standard input.

     When invoked as rreeaaddlliinnkk, only the target of the symbolic link is
     printed.  If the given argument is not a symbolic link, rreeaaddlliinnkk will
     print nothing and exit with an error.

     The information displayed is obtained by calling lstat(2) with the given
     argument and evaluating the returned structure.

     The options are as follows:

     --FF      As in ls(1), display a slash (`/') immediately after each path-
             name that is a directory, an asterisk (`*') after each that is
             executable, an at sign (`@') after each symbolic link, a percent
             sign (`%') after each whiteout, an equal sign (`=') after each
             socket, and a vertical bar (`|') after each that is a FIFO.  The
             use of --FF implies --ll.

     --ff _f_o_r_m_a_t
             Display information using the specified format.  See the _F_O_R_M_A_T_S
             section for a description of valid formats.

     --LL      Use stat(2) instead of lstat(2).  The information reported by
             ssttaatt will refer to the target of _f_i_l_e, if file is a symbolic
             link, and not to _f_i_l_e itself.

     --ll      Display output in llss --llTT format.

     --nn      Do not force a newline to appear at the end of each piece of out-
             put.

     --qq      Suppress failure messages if calls to stat(2) or lstat(2) fail.
             When run as rreeaaddlliinnkk, error messages are automatically sup-
             pressed.

     --rr      Display raw information.  That is, for all the fields in the _s_t_a_t
             structure, display the raw, numerical value (for example, times
             in seconds since the epoch, etc.).

     --ss      Display information in ``shell output'', suitable for initializ-
             ing variables.

     --tt _t_i_m_e_f_m_t
             Display timestamps using the specified format.  This format is
             passed directly to strftime(3).

     --xx      Display information in a more verbose way as known from some
             Linux distributions.

   FFoorrmmaattss
     Format strings are similar to printf(3) formats in that they start with
     %%, are then followed by a sequence of formatting characters, and end in a
     character that selects the field of the _s_t_r_u_c_t _s_t_a_t which is to be for-
     matted.  If the %% is immediately followed by one of nn, tt, %%, or @@, then a
     newline character, a tab character, a percent character, or the current
     file number is printed, otherwise the string is examined for the follow-
     ing:

     Any of the following optional flags:

     ##       Selects an alternate output form for octal and hexadecimal out-
             put.  Non-zero octal output will have a leading zero, and non-
             zero hexadecimal output will have ``0x'' prepended to it.

     ++       Asserts that a sign indicating whether a number is positive or
             negative should always be printed.  Non-negative numbers are not
             usually printed with a sign.

     --       Aligns string output to the left of the field, instead of to the
             right.

     00       Sets the fill character for left padding to the `0' character,
             instead of a space.

     space   Reserves a space at the front of non-negative signed output
             fields.  A `++' overrides a space if both are used.

     Then the following fields:

     _s_i_z_e    An optional decimal digit string specifying the minimum field
             width.

     _p_r_e_c    An optional precision composed of a decimal point `..' and a deci-
             mal digit string that indicates the maximum string length, the
             number of digits to appear after the decimal point in floating
             point output, or the minimum number of digits to appear in
             numeric output.

     _f_m_t     An optional output format specifier which is one of DD, OO, UU, XX,
             FF, or SS.  These represent signed decimal output, octal output,
             unsigned decimal output, hexadecimal output, floating point out-
             put, and string output, respectively.  Some output formats do not
             apply to all fields.  Floating point output only applies to
             _t_i_m_e_s_p_e_c fields (the aa, mm, and cc fields).

             The special output specifier SS may be used to indicate that the
             output, if applicable, should be in string format.  May be used
             in combination with:

             aammcc     Display date in strftime(3) format.

             ddrr      Display actual device name.

             gguu      Display group or user name.

             pp       Display the mode of _f_i_l_e as in llss --llTTdd.

             NN       Displays the name of _f_i_l_e.

             TT       Displays the type of _f_i_l_e.

             YY       Insert a `` -> '' into the output.  Note that the default
                     output format for YY is a string, but if specified explic-
                     itly, these four characters are prepended.

     _s_u_b     An optional sub field specifier (high, middle, low).  Only
             applies to the pp, dd, rr, and TT output formats.  It can be one of
             the following:

             HH       ``High'' -- specifies the major number for devices from rr
                     or dd, the ``user'' bits for permissions from the string
                     form of pp, the file ``type'' bits from the numeric forms
                     of pp, and the long output form of TT.

             LL       ``Low'' -- specifies the minor number for devices from rr
                     or dd, the ``other'' bits for permissions from the string
                     form of pp, the ``user'', ``group'', and ``other'' bits
                     from the numeric forms of pp, and the llss --FF style output
                     character for file type when used with TT (the use of LL
                     for this is optional).

             MM       ``Middle'' -- specifies the ``group'' bits for permis-
                     sions from the string output form of pp, or the ``suid'',
                     ``sgid'', and ``sticky'' bits for the numeric forms of pp.

     _d_a_t_u_m   A required field specifier, being one of the following:

             dd       Device upon which _f_i_l_e resides.

             ii       _f_i_l_e's inode number.

             pp       File type and permissions.

             ll       Number of hard links to _f_i_l_e.

             uu, gg    User ID and group ID of _f_i_l_e's owner.

             rr       Device number for character and block device special
                     files.

             aa, mm, cc, BB
                     The time _f_i_l_e was last accessed or modified, of when the
                     inode was last changed, or the birth time of the inode.

             zz       The size of _f_i_l_e in bytes.

             bb       Number of blocks allocated for _f_i_l_e.

             kk       Optimal file system I/O operation block size.

             ff       User defined flags for _f_i_l_e.

             vv       Inode generation number.

             The following four field specifiers are not drawn directly from
             the data in _s_t_r_u_c_t _s_t_a_t, but are:

             NN       The name of the file.

             TT       The file type, either as in llss --FF or in a more descrip-
                     tive form if the _s_u_b field specifier HH is given.

             YY       The target of a symbolic link.

             ZZ       Expands to ``major,minor'' from the _r_d_e_v field for char-
                     acter or block special devices and gives size output for
                     all others.

     Only the %% and the field specifier are required.  Most field specifiers
     default to UU as an output form, with the exception of pp which defaults to
     OO, aa, mm, and cc which default to DD, and YY, TT, and NN which default to SS.

EEXXIITT SSTTAATTUUSS
     The ssttaatt and rreeaaddlliinnkk utilities exit 0 on success, and >0 if an error
     occurs.

EEXXAAMMPPLLEESS
     Given a symbolic link _f_o_o that points from _/_t_m_p_/_f_o_o to _/, you would use
     ssttaatt as follows:

           > stat -F /tmp/foo
           lrwxrwxrwx 1 jschauma cs 1 Apr 24 16:37:28 2002 /tmp/foo@ -> /

           > stat -LF /tmp/foo
           drwxr-xr-x 16 root wheel 512 Apr 19 10:57:54 2002 /tmp/foo/

     To initialize some shell variables, you could use the --ss flag as follows:

           > csh
           % eval set `stat -s .cshrc`
           % echo $st_size $st_mtimespec
           1148 1015432481

           > sh
           $ eval $(stat -s .profile)
           $ echo $st_size $st_mtimespec
           1148 1015432481

     In order to get a list of the kind of files including files pointed to if
     the file is a symbolic link, you could use the following format:

           $ stat -f "%N: %HT%SY" /tmp/*
           /tmp/bar: Symbolic Link -> /tmp/foo
           /tmp/output25568: Regular File
           /tmp/blah: Directory
           /tmp/foo: Symbolic Link -> /

     In order to get a list of the devices, their types and the major and
     minor device numbers, formatted with tabs and linebreaks, you could use
     the following format:

           stat -f "Name: %N%n%tType: %HT%n%tMajor: %Hr%n%tMinor: %Lr%n%n" /dev/*
           [...]
           Name: /dev/wt8
                   Type: Block Device
                   Major: 3
                   Minor: 8

           Name: /dev/zero
                   Type: Character Device
                   Major: 2
                   Minor: 12

     In order to determine the permissions set on a file separately, you could
     use the following format:

           > stat -f "%Sp -> owner=%SHp group=%SMp other=%SLp" .
           drwxr-xr-x -> owner=rwx group=r-x other=r-x

     In order to determine the three files that have been modified most
     recently, you could use the following format:

           > stat -f "%m%t%Sm %N" /tmp/* | sort -rn | head -3 | cut -f2-
           Apr 25 11:47:00 2002 /tmp/blah
           Apr 25 10:36:34 2002 /tmp/bar
           Apr 24 16:47:35 2002 /tmp/foo

SSEEEE AALLSSOO
     file(1), ls(1), lstat(2), readlink(2), stat(2), printf(3), strftime(3)

HHIISSTTOORRYY
     The ssttaatt utility appeared in NetBSD 1.6 and FreeBSD 4.10.

AAUUTTHHOORRSS
     The ssttaatt utility was written by Andrew Brown <[email-masked]>.  This
     man page was written by Jan Schaumann <[email-masked]>.

BSD                               May 8, 2003                              BSD

-- 
Michael Welsh Duggan
([email-masked])