@section @code{lstat}
@findex lstat
-POSIX specification: @url{http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/lstat.html}
+POSIX specification:@* @url{http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/lstat.html}
Gnulib module: lstat
Portability problems fixed by Gnulib:
@itemize
@item
-When the argument ends in a slash, some platforms don't dereference the
-argument.
+For symlinks, when the argument ends in a slash, some platforms don't
+dereference the argument:
+Solaris 9.
+@item
+On some platforms, @code{lstat("file/",buf)} succeeds instead of
+failing with @code{ENOTDIR}.
+Solaris 9.
@item
On Windows platforms (excluding Cygwin), symlinks are not supported, so
@code{lstat} does not exist.
On platforms where @code{off_t} is a 32-bit type, @code{lstat} may not
correctly report the size of files or block devices larger than 2 GB. The fix
is to use the @code{AC_SYS_LARGEFILE} macro.
+@item
+On Windows platforms (excluding Cygwin), @code{st_ino} is always 0.
+@item
+Because of the definition of @code{struct stat}, it is not possible to
+portably replace @code{stat} via an object-like macro. Therefore,
+expressions such as @code{(islnk ? lstat : stat) (name, buf)} are not
+portable, and should instead be written @code{islnk ? lstat (name,
+buf) : stat (name, buf)}.
+@item
+On some file systems, @code{st_size} contains bogus information for
+symlinks; use the gnulib module areadlink-with-size for a better way
+to get symlink contents.
@end itemize