The time of last access, as a list of two integers.
The first integer has the high-order 16 bits of time,
the second has the low 16 bits. (This is similar to the
-value of @code{current-time}; see @ref{Time of Day}.)
+value of @code{current-time}; see @ref{Time of Day}.) Note that on
+some FAT-based filesystems, only the date of last access is recorded,
+so this time will always hold the midnight of the day of last access.
+@cindex modification time of file
@item
The time of last modification as a list of two integers (as above).
-@cindex modification time of file
+This is the last time when the file's contents were modified.
@item
The time of last status change as a list of two integers (as above).
+This is the time of the last change to the file's access mode bits,
+its owner and group, and other information recorded in the filesystem
+for the file, beyond the file's contents.
@item
The size of the file in bytes. If the size is too large to fit in a
deleted and recreated; @code{nil} otherwise.
@item
-The file's inode number. If possible, this is an integer. If the inode
-number is too large to be represented as an integer in Emacs Lisp, then
-the value has the form @code{(@var{high} . @var{low})}, where @var{low}
-holds the low 16 bits.
+The file's inode number. If possible, this is an integer. If the
+inode number is too large to be represented as an integer in Emacs
+Lisp, but still fits into a 32-bit integer, then the value has the
+form @code{(@var{high} . @var{low})}, where @var{low} holds the low 16
+bits. If the inode is wider than 32 bits, the value is of the form
+@code{(@var{high} @var{middle} . @var{low})}, where @code{high} holds
+the high 24 bits, @var{middle} the next 24 bits, and @var{low} the low
+16 bits.
@item
-The file system number of the file system that the file is in.
-Depending on the magnitude of the value, this can be either an integer
-or a cons cell, in the same manner as the inode number. This element
-and the file's inode number together give enough information to
-distinguish any two files on the system---no two files can have the same
-values for both of these numbers.
+The filesystem number of the device that the file is on. Depending on
+the magnitude of the value, this can be either an integer or a cons
+cell, in the same manner as the inode number. This element and the
+file's inode number together give enough information to distinguish
+any two files on the system---no two files can have the same values
+for both of these numbers.
@end enumerate
For example, here are the file attributes for @file{files.texi}:
@group
(file-attributes "files.texi" 'string)
@result{} (nil 1 "lh" "users"
- (8489 20284)
- (8489 20284)
- (8489 20285)
- 14906 "-rw-rw-rw-"
- nil 129500 -32252)
+ (19145 42977)
+ (19141 59576)
+ (18340 17300)
+ 122295 "-rw-rw-rw-"
+ nil (5888 2 . 43978)
+ (15479 . 46724))
@end group
@end example
@item "users"
is in the group with name "users".
-@item (8489 20284)
-was last accessed on Aug 19 00:09.
+@item (19145 42977)
+was last accessed on Oct 5 2009, at 10:01:37.
-@item (8489 20284)
-was last modified on Aug 19 00:09.
+@item (19141 59576)
+last had its contents modified on Oct 2 2009, at 13:49:12.
-@item (8489 20285)
-last had its inode changed on Aug 19 00:09.
+@item (18340 17300)
+last had its status changed on Feb 2 2008, at 12:19:00.
-@item 14906
-is 14906 bytes long. (It may not contain 14906 characters, though,
-if some of the bytes belong to multibyte sequences.)
+@item 122295
+is 122295 bytes long. (It may not contain 122295 characters, though,
+if some of the bytes belong to multibyte sequences, and also if the
+end-of-line format is CR-LF.)
@item "-rw-rw-rw-"
has a mode of read and write access for the owner, group, and world.
@item nil
would retain the same @acronym{GID} if it were recreated.
-@item 129500
-has an inode number of 129500.
-@item -32252
-is on file system number -32252.
+@item (5888 2 . 43978)
+has an inode number of 6473924464520138.
+
+@item (15479 . 46724)
+is on the file-system device whose number is 1014478468.
@end table
@end defun
@node Create/Delete Dirs
@section Creating, Copying and Deleting Directories
-@cindex creating and deleting directories
-@cindex copying directories
+@cindex creating, copying and deleting directories
@c Emacs 19 features
Most Emacs Lisp file-manipulation functions get errors when used on