This is indicative of glibc's bad design more than anything else. stat(2) is not a single syscall. The changes are exposed as new, isolated syscalls (sys_stat,

This is indicative of glibc's bad design more than anything else. stat(2) is not a single syscall. The changes are exposed as new, isolated syscalls (sys_stat, sys_newstat, sys_stat64), with glibc switching internally between them as it sees fit, surprising developers in the process. This makes stat a great example of the syscall being easier to work with, more stable and more reliable than the glibc wrapper.