What is `S_ISREG()`, and what does it do?

Question

I came across the macro S_ISREG() in a C program that retrieves file attributes. Unfortunately, there isn\'t any basic information about this macro online. There ar

Answer 1

S_ISREG() is a macro used to interpret the values in a stat-struct, as returned from the system call stat(). It evaluates to true if the argument(The st_mode member in struct stat) is a regular file.

See man stat, man fstat or man inode (link to inode man page) for further details. Here's the relevant part of the man page:

   Because tests of the above form are common, additional macros are defined by POSIX to allow the test of the file type in st_mode to be written more concisely:

       S_ISREG(m)  is it a regular file?

       S_ISDIR(m)  directory?

       S_ISCHR(m)  character device?

       S_ISBLK(m)  block device?

       S_ISFIFO(m) FIFO (named pipe)?

       S_ISLNK(m)  symbolic link?  (Not in POSIX.1-1996.)

       S_ISSOCK(m) socket?  (Not in POSIX.1-1996.)

   The preceding code snippet could thus be rewritten as:

       stat(pathname, &sb);
       if (S_ISREG(sb.st_mode)) {
           /* Handle regular file */
       }