file_spec

    A valid OpenVMS or UNIX style file specification (no wildcards).
    Read, write, or execute permission of the named file is not
    required, but you must be able to reach all directories listed
    in the file specification leading to the file.

 buffer

    A pointer to a structure of type stat. For convenience, a typedef
    stat_t is defined as struct stat in the <stat.h> header file.

    This argument receives information about the particular file. The
    members of the structure pointed to by buffer are described in
    the Description section.

  . . .

    An optional default file-name string.

    This is the only optional RMS keyword that can be specified for
    the stat function. See the description of the creat function for
    the full list of optional RMS keywords and their values.