Visual C++ 2015 express: _stat not working on Windows XP

Question

Running the following example for _stat from MSDN compiled with Visual C++ 2015 Express using v140_xp as Platform Toolset (target Win32) runs normally on Windows 7 but not on Windows XP on several machines I tested.

// crt_stat.c
// This program uses the _stat function to
// report information about the file named crt_stat.c.

#include <time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>

int main()
{
  struct _stat buf;
  int result;
  char timebuf[26];
  char* filename = "crt_stat.c"; // Absolute paths like "D:\\crt_stat.c" produce the same behaviour.
  errno_t err;

  // Get data associated with "crt_stat.c":
  result = _stat( filename, &buf );

  // Check if statistics are valid:
  if ( result != 0 )
  {
    perror( "Problem getting information" );
    switch ( errno )
    {
    case ENOENT:
      printf( "File %s not found.\n", filename );
      break;
    case EINVAL:
      printf( "Invalid parameter to _stat.\n" );
      break;
    default:
      /* Should never be reached. */
      printf( "Unexpected error in _stat.\n" );
    }
  }
  else
  {
    // Output some of the statistics:
    printf( "File size     : %ld\n", buf.st_size );
    printf( "Drive         : %c:\n", buf.st_dev + 'A' );
    err = ctime_s( timebuf, 26, &buf.st_mtime );
    if ( err )
    {
      printf( "Invalid arguments to ctime_s." );
      return 1;
    }
    printf( "Time modified : %s", timebuf );
  }
}

Windows 7 output:

File size     : 6
Drive         : D:
Time modified : Tue Sep  8 10:06:57 2015

Windows XP output:

Problem getting information: Invalid argument
Invalid parameter to _stat.

And yes crt_stat.c is located in the executables directory which also is the CWD.

Is this a Bug or am I missing something?

Answer 1

As pointed out in the comments, it is a bug in the runtime. Right now (2015-09-09) the fix is not yet available in an update, but probably will be soon. A workaround is to use GetFileAttributesEx instead.