---
name: "fhstatfs"
section: "2"
platform: "linux"
package: "freebsd-manpages"
version: "6.0-5"
release: "Debian 4.0 (Etch)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/fhstatfs"
---

# fhstatfs(2)

access file via file handle

## NAME

**fhopen**, **fhstat**, **fhstatfs** – access file via file handle

## LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

## SYNOPSIS

**#include \<sys/param.h\>**

**#include \<sys/mount.h\>**

**#include \<sys/stat.h\>**

*int*\

**fhopen**(*const fhandle\_t \*fhp*, *int flags*);

*int*\

**fhstat**(*const fhandle\_t \*fhp*, *struct stat \*sb*);

*int*\

**fhstatfs**(*const fhandle\_t \*fhp*, *struct statfs \*buf*);

## DESCRIPTION

These system calls provide a means to access a file given the file handle *fhp*. As this method bypasses directory access restrictions, these calls are restricted to the superuser.

The **fhopen**() system call opens the file referenced by *fhp* for reading and/or writing as specified by the argument *flags* and returns the file descriptor to the calling process. The *flags* argument is specified by *or*'ing together the flags used for the [open(2)](/open/2.md) system call. All said flags are valid except for O\_CREAT.

The **fhstat**() and **fhstatfs**() system calls provide the functionality of the [fstat(2)](/fstat/2.md) and [fstatfs(2)](/fstatfs/2.md) calls except that they return information for the file referred to by *fhp* rather than an open file.

## RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, **fhopen**() returns the file descriptor for the opened file; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable *errno* is set to indicate the error.

The **fhstat()** and **fhstatfs()** functions return the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

## ERRORS

In addition to the errors returned by [open(2)](/open/2.md), [fstat(2)](/fstat/2.md), and [fstatfs(2)](/fstatfs/2.md) respectively, **fhopen**(), **fhstat**(), and **fhstatfs**() will return

- \[EINVAL\]

  Calling **fhopen**() with O\_CREAT set.

- \[ESTALE\]

  The file handle *fhp* is no longer valid.

## SEE ALSO

[fstat(2)](/fstat/2.md), [fstatfs(2)](/fstatfs/2.md), [getfh(2)](/getfh/2.md), [open(2)](/open/2.md)

## HISTORY

The **fhopen**(), **fhstat**(), and **fhstatfs**() system calls first appeared in NetBSD 1.5 and were adapted to FreeBSD 4.0 by Alfred Perlstein.

## AUTHORS

This manual page was written by William Studenmund for NetBSD.