Test your knowledge: filesystem metadata

Review

1. Which stat_result attribute reports the size of an ordinary file in bytes?

   st_size reports file size in bytes for regular files.
2. How should code test whether st_mode describes a directory?

   stat.S_ISDIR() interprets the file-type bits rather than relying on a guessed numeric mode.
3. What does stat.S_IMODE(mode) return?

   S_IMODE extracts permission and special bits that chmod-style modes can represent.
4. Why should st_ctime not be treated as a portable creation timestamp?

   st_ctime has historically represented metadata-change time on Unix-like systems and creation time on Windows; portable code must not assume one universal meaning.
5. Which call normally reports metadata for the target of a symbolic link?

   os.stat follows symbolic links by default; os.lstat reports metadata for the link itself.
6. When is os.fstat() useful?

   os.fstat() obtains metadata for an open file descriptor, connecting the metadata query to that open object.
7. Does st_mtime_ns guarantee that the filesystem records time with true nanosecond precision?

   The nanosecond field is an integer representation, but available precision depends on the platform and filesystem.
8. Which exception should be caught when a missing path is an expected outcome of os.stat()?

   FileNotFoundError specifically represents a missing filesystem path.
9. Which statement about st_ino is most accurate?

   st_ino can identify a file within a system-specific context but is not a universal persistent identifier.