PHP: stat function - Gives information about a file

Description

array stat ( string $filename )

Gathers the statistics of the file named by filename . If filename is a symbolic link, statistics are from the file itself, not the symlink.

lstat() is identical to stat() except it would instead be based off the symlinks status.

Parameters

filename: Path to the file.

Return Values

**stat()** and fstat() result format
Numeric	Associative (since PHP 4.0.6)	Description
0	dev	device number
1	ino	inode number *
2	mode	inode protection mode
3	nlink	number of links
4	uid	userid of owner *
5	gid	groupid of owner *
6	rdev	device type, if inode device
7	size	size in bytes
8	atime	time of last access (Unix timestamp)
9	mtime	time of last modification (Unix timestamp)
10	ctime	time of last inode change (Unix timestamp)
11	blksize	blocksize of filesystem IO **
12	blocks	number of blocks allocated **

* On Windows this will always be 0.

** Only valid on systems supporting the st_blksize type - other systems (e.g. Windows) return -1.

In case of error, stat() returns FALSE.

Errors/Exceptions

Upon failure, an E_WARNING is emitted.

ChangeLog

Version	Description
4.0.6	In addition to returning these attributes in a numeric array, they can be accessed with associative indices, as noted next to each parameter

Examples

Example #1 stat() example


<?php
/* Get file stat */
$stat = stat('C:\php\php.exe');

/*
 * Print file access file, this is the same 
 * as calling fileatime()
 */
echo 'Access time: ' . $stat['atime'];

/*
 * Print file modification time, this is the 
 * same as calling filemtime()
 */
echo 'Modification time: ' . $stat['mtime'];

/* Print the device number */
echo 'Device number: ' . $stat['dev'];

Example #2 Using stat() information together with touch()


<?php
/* Get file stat */
$stat = @stat('C:\php\php.exe');

/* Did we failed to get stat information ? */
if(!$stat)
{
    echo 'Stat call failed...';
}
else
{
    /*
     * We want the access time to be 1 week 
     * before the current access time.
     */
    $atime = $stat['atime'] + 604800;

    /* Touch the file */
    if(!@touch('some_file.txt', time(), $atime))
    {
        echo 'Failed to touch file...';
    }
    else
    {
        echo 'Touch returned success...';
    }
}
?>

Notes

Note: Note that time resolution may differ from one file system to another.

Note: The results of this function are cached. See clearstatcache() for more details.

Tip

As of PHP 5.0.0, this function can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to List of Supported Protocols/Wrappers for a listing of which wrappers support stat() family of functionality.