diff --git a/ui/medashare/cli.py b/ui/medashare/cli.py
index 38ff52a..5980a7c 100644
--- a/ui/medashare/cli.py
+++ b/ui/medashare/cli.py
@@ -693,10 +693,32 @@ class FileObject(MDBase):
 		return uuid.uuid5(_NAMESPACE_MEDASHARE_PATH,
 		    str(hostid) + '/'.join(os.path.split(fname)))
 
+	_statsymbtoname = { getattr(stat, x): 'stat.' + x for x in dir(stat) if x.startswith('S_') }
+
+	@classmethod
+	def _modetosymbolic(cls, mode): # pragma: no cover
+		r = []
+		while mode:
+			nbit = -mode & mode
+
+			r.append(cls._statsymbtoname[nbit])
+
+			mode = mode & ~nbit
+
+		return '|'.join(r)
+	@classmethod
+	def _real_stat_repr(cls, st): # pragma: no cover
+		return 'os.stat_result' \
+		    '((%s, %d, %d, %d, %d, %d, %d, %d, %.6f, %d))' % \
+		    (cls._modetosymbolic(st.st_mode), 10, 100, 1, 100, 100,
+		    st.st_size, st.st_atime, st.st_mtime, st.st_ctime)
+
 	@classmethod
 	def from_file(cls, filename, created_by_ref):
 		filename = os.path.abspath(filename)
 		s = os.stat(filename)
+		# keep so that when new files are added, it's easy to get stat
+		#_debprint(repr(filename), cls._real_stat_repr(s))
 		# XXX - race here, fix w/ checking mtime before/after?
 		obj = {
 			'created_by_ref': created_by_ref,