Index: portability.eclass
===================================================================
RCS file: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/eclass/portability.eclass,v
retrieving revision 1.24
diff -u -B -r1.24 portability.eclass
--- portability.eclass	4 Jan 2012 05:57:19 -0000	1.24
+++ portability.eclass	13 May 2013 11:00:33 -0000
@@ -132,6 +132,34 @@
 	done
 }
 
+# @FUNCTION: estat
+# @USAGE: <'%a'> <file>
+# @DESCRIPTION:
+# Portable version of GNU stat -c. See GNU stat(1) manpage.
+# Its usage is limited to format specifiers that are actually implemented in a
+# portable way.
+# It supports only one format specifier, meaning "$(estat '%a%b' file)" is not
+# allowed but "$(estat '%a' file)$(estat '%b' file)" should be used instead.
+# estat currently implements the following specifiers from GNU stat: %a.
+estat() {
+	local stat_version="unknown"
+	if $(stat --help 2>&1 | grep -q GNU) ; then
+		stat_version="GNU"
+	fi
+
+	local fmt=$1; shift
+
+	case ${fmt} in
+		%a)
+			if [ "${stat_version}" = "GNU" ] ; then
+				stat -c "${fmt}" "$@"
+			else
+				find "$@" -maxdepth 0 -printf '%m'
+			fi;;
+		*) die "unhandled form";;
+	esac
+}
+
 _dead_portability_user_funcs() { die "if you really need this, please file a bug for base-system@gentoo.org"; }
 is-login-disabled() { _dead_portability_user_funcs; }