confused by libc::stat

[portaloffreedom]

I'm trying to call the stat function for a personal project. As far as I understood I need to call the libc::stat function on the libc::stat struct. I can understand how it works, but since struct and function are in the same module, the rust compiler is quite confused.

I've searched online and found nothing that tells me how to use libc::<stat as struct> or <stat as fn>(path, &mut stat_struct) or similar combinations.

How am I supposed to fix this? Is this a bug in the library? Or is it me that is missing something about the language?

Rust has separate namespaces for types (where stat struct would be) and values
(where stat function would be). Thus, this shouldn't cause any problems.

Those two can be use as follows (to display inode number of root directory, in
this example):

extern crate libc;

use std::mem;
use std::ffi::*;

fn main() {
    unsafe {
        let mut s: libc::stat = mem::zeroed();
        let path = CString::new("/").unwrap();
        let ret = libc::stat(path.as_ptr(), &mut s);
        assert_eq!(ret, 0);
        println!("{:?}", s.st_ino);
    }
}

If this actually causes problems, it will be easier to help if you actually
paste the code and/or error messages.

[portaloffreedom]

I managed, I had a stupid syntax error, totally my fault. Still, wouldn't it be nice to add this example in the documentation? I think it could help other people

[alexcrichton]

Thanks for the report! Rust actually has two namespaces (a type and a value namespace) for problems like this, so depending on where libc::stat is referenced it'll be unambiguous.

Currently this library has little documentation as it's just a straight binding to libc, but perhaps a clarification could be made in the book somewhere?