--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2009-01-20  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
+
+	* configure.in: Check for fstat.
+
 2008-12-23  David Bateman  <dbateman@free.fr>
 
 	* configure.in: Add configuration test for ARPACK. 

--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -1505,7 +1505,7 @@
 ### Checks for functions and variables.
 
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(atexit basename bcopy bzero canonicalize_file_name \
-  chmod dup2 endgrent endpwent execvp expm1 expm1f fcntl fork getcwd \
+  chmod dup2 endgrent endpwent execvp expm1 expm1f fcntl fork fstat getcwd \
   getegid geteuid getgid getgrent getgrgid getgrnam getpgrp getpid \
   getppid getpwent getpwuid gettimeofday getuid getwd _kbhit kill \
   lgamma lgammaf lgamma_r lgammaf_r link localtime_r log1p log1pf lstat \

--- a/doc/ChangeLog
+++ b/doc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2009-01-20  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
+
+	* interpreter/system.txi (Filesystem Utilities): @DOCSTRING for
+	fstat.  Delete @DOCSTRING for lstat.  Add anchor for doc-lstat.
+
 2009-01-18  Thorsten Meyer  <thorsten.meyier@gmx.de>
 
 	* interpreter/numbers.txi (Numeric Data Types): Trivial fixes.

--- a/doc/interpreter/system.txi
+++ b/doc/interpreter/system.txi
@@ -177,9 +177,10 @@
 
 @DOCSTRING(umask)
 
+@anchor{doc-lstat}
 @DOCSTRING(stat)
 
-@DOCSTRING(lstat)
+@DOCSTRING(fstat)
 
 @DOCSTRING(fileattrib)
 

--- a/liboctave/ChangeLog
+++ b/liboctave/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2009-01-20  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
+
+	* file-stat.h, file-stat.cc (class base_file_stat): New base class.
+	(class file_stat): Derive from base_file_stat.
+	(class file_fstat): New class, derived from base_file_stat.
+
 2009-01-17  Jaroslav Hajek  <highegg@gmail.com>
 
 	* floatQR.h (FloatQR::update, FloatQR::insert_col,

--- a/liboctave/file-stat.cc
+++ b/liboctave/file-stat.cc
@@ -52,49 +52,49 @@
 // initialized, they should throw an exception.
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_blk (void) const
+base_file_stat::is_blk (void) const
 {
   return is_blk (fs_mode);
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_chr (void) const
+base_file_stat::is_chr (void) const
 {
   return is_chr (fs_mode);
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_dir (void) const
+base_file_stat::is_dir (void) const
 { 
   return is_dir (fs_mode);
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_fifo (void) const
+base_file_stat::is_fifo (void) const
 { 
   return is_fifo (fs_mode);
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_lnk (void) const
+base_file_stat::is_lnk (void) const
 { 
   return is_lnk (fs_mode);
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_reg (void) const
+base_file_stat::is_reg (void) const
 { 
   return is_reg (fs_mode);
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_sock (void) const
+base_file_stat::is_sock (void) const
 { 
   return is_sock (fs_mode);
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_blk (mode_t mode)
+base_file_stat::is_blk (mode_t mode)
 {
 #ifdef S_ISBLK
   return S_ISBLK (mode);
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_chr (mode_t mode)
+base_file_stat::is_chr (mode_t mode)
 {
 #ifdef S_ISCHR
   return S_ISCHR (mode);
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_dir (mode_t mode)
+base_file_stat::is_dir (mode_t mode)
 { 
 #ifdef S_ISDIR
   return S_ISDIR (mode);
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_fifo (mode_t mode)
+base_file_stat::is_fifo (mode_t mode)
 { 
 #ifdef S_ISFIFO
   return S_ISFIFO (mode);
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_lnk (mode_t mode)
+base_file_stat::is_lnk (mode_t mode)
 { 
 #ifdef S_ISLNK
   return S_ISLNK (mode);
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_reg (mode_t mode)
+base_file_stat::is_reg (mode_t mode)
 { 
 #ifdef S_ISREG
   return S_ISREG (mode);
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@
 }
 
 bool
-file_stat::is_sock (mode_t mode)
+base_file_stat::is_sock (mode_t mode)
 { 
 #ifdef S_ISSOCK
   return S_ISSOCK (mode);
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@
 extern "C" void mode_string (unsigned short, char *);
 
 std::string
-file_stat::mode_as_string (void) const
+base_file_stat::mode_as_string (void) const
 {
   char buf[11];
 
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@
 // and -1 for any error.
 
 int
-file_stat::is_newer (const std::string& file, const octave_time& time)
+base_file_stat::is_newer (const std::string& file, const octave_time& time)
 {
   file_stat fs (file);
 
@@ -252,35 +252,61 @@
 }
 
 void
-file_stat::copy (const file_stat& fs)
+file_fstat::update_internal (bool force)
 {
-  file_name = fs.file_name;
-  follow_links = fs.follow_links;
-  initialized = fs.initialized;
-  fail = fs.fail;
-  errmsg = fs.errmsg;
-  fs_mode = fs.fs_mode;
-  fs_ino = fs.fs_ino;
-  fs_dev = fs.fs_dev;
-  fs_nlink = fs.fs_nlink;
-  fs_uid = fs.fs_uid;
-  fs_gid = fs.fs_gid;
-  fs_size = fs.fs_size;
-  fs_atime = fs.fs_atime;
-  fs_mtime = fs.fs_mtime;
-  fs_ctime = fs.fs_ctime;
+  if (! initialized || force)
+    {
+      initialized = false;
+      fail = false;
+
+#if defined (HAVE_FSTAT)
+
+      struct stat buf;
+
+      int status = fstat (fid, &buf);
+
+      if (status < 0)
+	{
+	  using namespace std;
+
+	  fail = true;
+	  errmsg = strerror (errno);
+	}
+      else
+	{
+	  fs_mode = buf.st_mode;
+	  fs_ino = buf.st_ino;
+	  fs_dev = buf.st_dev;
+	  fs_nlink = buf.st_nlink;
+	  fs_uid = buf.st_uid;
+	  fs_gid = buf.st_gid;
+	  fs_size = buf.st_size;
+	  fs_atime = buf.st_atime;
+	  fs_mtime = buf.st_mtime;
+	  fs_ctime = buf.st_ctime;
 
 #if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_RDEV)
-  fs_rdev = fs.fs_rdev;
+	  fs_rdev = buf.st_rdev;
 #endif
 
 #if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_BLKSIZE)
-  fs_blksize = fs.fs_blksize;
+	  fs_blksize = buf.st_blksize;
 #endif
 
 #if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_BLOCKS)
-  fs_blocks = fs.fs_blocks;
+	  fs_blocks = buf.st_blocks;
 #endif
+	}
+
+#else
+
+      fail = true;
+      errmsg = "fstat not available on this system";
+
+#endif
+
+      initialized = true;
+    }
 }
 
 /*

--- a/liboctave/file-stat.h
+++ b/liboctave/file-stat.h
@@ -34,46 +34,50 @@
 
 class
 OCTAVE_API
-file_stat
+base_file_stat
 {
 public:
 
-  file_stat (const std::string& n = std::string (), bool fl = true)
-    : file_name (n), follow_links (fl), initialized (false)
+  base_file_stat (void)
+    : initialized (false), fail (false), errmsg (), fs_mode (),
+      fs_ino (), fs_dev (), fs_nlink (), fs_uid (), fs_gid (),
+      fs_size (), fs_atime (), fs_mtime (), fs_ctime (), fs_rdev (),
+      fs_blksize (), fs_blocks () { }
+
+  base_file_stat (const base_file_stat& fs)
+    : initialized (fs.initialized), fail (fs.fail), errmsg (fs.errmsg),
+      fs_mode (fs.fs_mode), fs_ino (fs.fs_ino), fs_dev (fs.fs_dev),
+      fs_nlink (fs.fs_nlink), fs_uid (fs.fs_uid), fs_gid (fs.fs_gid),
+      fs_size (fs.fs_size), fs_atime (fs.fs_atime), fs_mtime (fs.fs_mtime),
+      fs_ctime (fs.fs_ctime), fs_rdev (fs.fs_rdev),
+      fs_blksize (fs.fs_blksize), fs_blocks (fs.fs_blocks) { }
+
+  base_file_stat& operator = (const base_file_stat& fs)
+  {
+    if (this != &fs)
       {
-	if (! file_name.empty ())
-	  update_internal ();
+	initialized = fs.initialized;
+	fail = fs.fail;
+	errmsg = fs.errmsg;
+	fs_mode = fs.fs_mode;
+	fs_ino = fs.fs_ino;
+	fs_dev = fs.fs_dev;
+	fs_nlink = fs.fs_nlink;
+	fs_uid = fs.fs_uid;
+	fs_gid = fs.fs_gid;
+	fs_size = fs.fs_size;
+	fs_atime = fs.fs_atime;
+	fs_mtime = fs.fs_mtime;
+	fs_ctime = fs.fs_ctime;
+	fs_rdev = fs.fs_rdev;
+	fs_blksize = fs.fs_blksize;
+	fs_blocks = fs.fs_blocks;
       }
 
-  file_stat (const file_stat& f) { copy (f); }
-
-  file_stat& operator = (const file_stat& f)
-    {
-      if (this != &f)
-	copy (f);
-
-      return *this;
-    }
-
-  ~file_stat (void) { }
+    return *this;
+  }
 
-  void get_stats (bool force = false)
-    {
-      if (! initialized || force)
-        update_internal (force);
-    }
-
-  void get_stats (const std::string& n, bool force = false)
-    {
-      if (n != file_name || ! initialized  || force)
-	{
-	  initialized = false;
-
-	  file_name = n;
-
-	  update_internal (force);
-	}
-    }
+  ~base_file_stat (void) { }
 
   // File status and info.  These should only be called for objects
   // that are already properly initialized.
@@ -108,17 +112,10 @@
   octave_time mtime (void) const { return fs_mtime; }
   octave_time ctime (void) const { return fs_ctime; }
 
-#if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_RDEV)
   dev_t rdev (void) const { return fs_rdev; }
-#endif
 
-#if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_BLKSIZE)
   long blksize (void) const { return fs_blksize; }
-#endif
-
-#if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_BLOCKS)
   long blocks (void) const { return fs_blocks; }
-#endif
 
   mode_t mode (void) const { return fs_mode; }
 
@@ -139,14 +136,7 @@
   // really care about it.
   static int is_newer (const std::string&, const octave_time&);
 
-private:
-
-  // Name of the file.
-  std::string file_name;
-
-  // TRUE means follow symbolic links to the ultimate file (stat).
-  // FALSE means get information about the link itself (lstat).
-  bool follow_links;
+protected:
 
   // TRUE means we have already called stat.
   bool initialized;
@@ -187,24 +177,130 @@
   // time of last file status change
   octave_time fs_ctime;
 
-#if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_RDEV)
   // device number for special files
   dev_t fs_rdev;
-#endif
 
-#if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_BLKSIZE)
   // best I/O block size
   long fs_blksize;
-#endif
 
-#if defined (HAVE_STRUCT_STAT_ST_BLOCKS)
   // number of 512-byte blocks allocated
   long fs_blocks;
-#endif
+};
+
+class
+OCTAVE_API
+file_stat : public base_file_stat
+{
+public:
+
+  file_stat (const std::string& n = std::string (), bool fl = true)
+    : base_file_stat (), file_name (n), follow_links (fl)
+  {
+    if (! file_name.empty ())
+      update_internal ();
+  }
+
+  file_stat (const file_stat& fs)
+    : base_file_stat (fs), file_name (fs.file_name),
+      follow_links (fs.follow_links) { }
+
+  file_stat& operator = (const file_stat& fs)
+  {
+    if (this != &fs)
+      {
+	base_file_stat::operator = (fs);
+
+	file_name = fs.file_name;
+	follow_links = fs.follow_links;
+      }
+
+    return *this;
+  }
+
+  ~file_stat (void) { }
+
+  void get_stats (bool force = false)
+  {
+    if (! initialized || force)
+      update_internal (force);
+  }
+
+  void get_stats (const std::string& n, bool force = false)
+  {
+    if (n != file_name || ! initialized  || force)
+      {
+	initialized = false;
+
+	file_name = n;
+
+	update_internal (force);
+      }
+  }
+
+private:
+
+  // Name of the file.
+  std::string file_name;
+
+  // TRUE means follow symbolic links to the ultimate file (stat).
+  // FALSE means get information about the link itself (lstat).
+  bool follow_links;
 
   void update_internal (bool force = false);
+};
 
-  void copy (const file_stat&);
+class
+OCTAVE_API
+file_fstat : public base_file_stat
+{
+public:
+
+  file_fstat (int n) : base_file_stat (), fid (n)
+  {
+    update_internal ();
+  }
+
+  file_fstat (const file_fstat& fs)
+    : base_file_stat (fs), fid (fs.fid) { }
+
+  file_fstat& operator = (const file_fstat& fs)
+  {
+    if (this != &fs)
+      {
+	base_file_stat::operator = (fs);
+
+	fid = fs.fid;
+      }
+
+    return *this;
+  }
+
+  ~file_fstat (void) { }
+
+  void get_stats (bool force = false)
+  {
+    if (! initialized || force)
+      update_internal (force);
+  }
+
+  void get_stats (int n, bool force = false)
+  {
+    if (n != fid || ! initialized  || force)
+      {
+	initialized = false;
+
+	fid = n;
+
+	update_internal (force);
+      }
+  }
+
+private:
+
+  // Open file descriptor.
+  int fid;
+
+  void update_internal (bool force = false);
 };
 
 #endif

--- a/src/ChangeLog
+++ b/src/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2009-01-20  John W. Eaton  <jwe@octave.org>
+
+	* file-io.cc (Ffstat): New function.
+
 2009-01-17  Jaroslav Hajek  <highegg@gmail.com>
 
 	* DLD-FUNCTIONS/qr.cc (Fqrupdate, Fqrinsert, Fqrdelete, Fqrshift):

--- a/src/syscalls.cc
+++ b/src/syscalls.cc
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@
 #include "input.h"
 
 static Octave_map
-mk_stat_map (const file_stat& fs)
+mk_stat_map (const base_file_stat& fs)
 {
   Octave_map m;
 
@@ -722,6 +722,43 @@
   return retval;
 }
 
+DEFUN (fstat, args, ,
+  "-*- texinfo -*-\n\
+@deftypefn {Built-in Function} {[@var{info}, @var{err}, @var{msg}] =} fstat (@var{fid})\n\
+Return information about about the open file @var{fid}.  See @code{stat}\n\
+for a description of the contents of @var{info}.\n\
+@end deftypefn")
+{
+  octave_value_list retval;
+
+  if (args.length () == 1)
+    {
+      int fid = octave_stream_list::get_file_number (args(0));
+
+      if (! error_state)
+	{
+	  file_fstat fs (fid);
+
+	  if (fs)
+	    {
+	      retval(2) = std::string ();
+	      retval(1) = 0;
+	      retval(0) = octave_value (mk_stat_map (fs));
+	    }
+	  else
+	    {
+	      retval(2) = fs.error ();
+	      retval(1) = -1;
+	      retval(0) = Matrix ();
+	    }
+	}
+    }
+  else
+    print_usage ();
+
+  return retval;
+}
+
 DEFUN (lstat, args, ,
   "-*- texinfo -*-\n\
 @deftypefn {Built-in Function} {[@var{info}, @var{err}, @var{msg}] =} lstat (@var{file})\n\