atomic: if the filesystem is simultaneously being changed by some
other process, this function returns the file's attributes either
before or after the change. Otherwise this function is not atomic,
-and might return @code{nil} it detects the race condition, or might
+and might return @code{nil} if it detects the race condition, or might
return a hodgepodge of the previous and current file attributes.
Accessor functions are provided to access the elements in this list.