stat module

[Gian Mario Tagliaretti]

Hi guys, maybe is an easy question but there is something I haven't understood

I will post the example for better explain

Python 2.3.4c1 (#2, May 13 2004, 21:46:36) 
[GCC 3.3.3 (Debian 20040429)]
>>> import os
>>> mode_list = os.lstat('/etc/passwd')
>>> import stat
>>> mode = stat.S_IMODE(mode_list[0])
>>> print mode
420

now if I chech the permission on /etc/passwd I get

liquid at debian:~$ ls -la /etc/passwd
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         1077 Apr 28 17:48 /etc/passwd
liquid at debian:~$

which is a 644 file permission.

I've tried to read very carefully the manual and the module description but 
there is something that probably I don't understand

Thank's for any help

Mario aka Liquid