The stat keyword

stat returns a list with 13 elements with the status information for a file that is either opened with the DIRHANDLE or FILEHANDLE, or by an EXPRESSION. Without the EXPRESSION, $_ is stat. If the operation fails, it returns an empty list.

If the variable list VARIABLES of stat has more than one element, the list has to be placed in brackets. In such a list, undef can be used as a placeholder.

If more than one stat with the same name are declared within the same lexical scope, Perl issues a warning, as it is the case with multiple my declarations, but they are seen as redundant.

stat variables can only be used with the use feature "state" pragma, unless it is written fully as CORE::state.

  stat FILEHANDLE
  stat EXPRESSION
  stat DIRHANDLE
  stat

($dev, $ino, $mode, $nlink, $uid, $gid, $rdev, $size,
       $atime, $mtime, $ctime, $blksize, $blocks)
           = stat($filename);