docs: def _Stat(self, path, ext_attrs=False):
      """Returns stat information of a specific path.
  
      Args:
        path: A unicode string containing the path.
        ext_attrs: Whether the call should also collect extended attributes.
  
      Returns:
        a StatResponse proto
  
      Raises:
        IOError when call to os.stat() fails
      """
      # Note that the encoding of local path is system specific
      local_path = client_utils.CanonicalPathToLocalPath(path)
      result = client_utils.StatEntryFromPath(
          local_path, self.pathspec, ext_attrs=ext_attrs)
  
      # Is this a symlink? If so we need to note the real location of the file.
      try:
        result.symlink = utils.SmartUnicode(os.readlink(local_path))
      except (OSError, AttributeError):
        pass
  
      return result