<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Checks whether a file or directory exists</title> </head> <body><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;"> <div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="function.fgetss.html">fgetss</a></div> <div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="function.file-get-contents.html">file_get_contents</a></div> <div class="up"><a href="ref.filesystem.html">Filesystem Functions</a></div> <div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div> </div><hr /><div id="function.file-exists" class="refentry"> <div class="refnamediv"> <h1 class="refname">file_exists</h1> <p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">file_exists</span> — <span class="dc-title">Checks whether a file or directory exists</span></p> </div> <div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.file-exists-description"> <h3 class="title">Description</h3> <div class="methodsynopsis dc-description"> <span class="type">bool</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>file_exists</strong></span> ( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$filename</code></span> )</div> <p class="para rdfs-comment"> Checks whether a file or directory exists. </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.file-exists-parameters"> <h3 class="title">Parameters</h3> <p class="para"> <dl> <dt> <span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">filename</code></em></span> <dd> <p class="para"> Path to the file or directory. </p> <p class="para"> On windows, use <var class="filename">//computername/share/filename</var> or <var class="filename">\\computername\share\filename</var> to check files on network shares. </p> </dd> </dt> </dl> </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.file-exists-returnvalues"> <h3 class="title">Return Values</h3> <p class="para"> Returns <strong><code>TRUE</code></strong> if the file or directory specified by <em><code class="parameter">filename</code></em> exists; <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> otherwise. </p> <blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>: <p class="para"> This function will return <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> for symlinks pointing to non-existing files. </p> </p></blockquote> <div class="warning"><strong class="warning">Warning</strong> <p class="para"> This function returns <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> for files inaccessible due to <a href="features.safe-mode.html" class="link">safe mode</a> restrictions. However these files still can be <a href="function.include.html" class="link">included</a> if they are located in <a href="ini.sect.safe-mode.html#ini.safe-mode-include-dir" class="link">safe_mode_include_dir</a>. </p> </div> <blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>: <p class="para"> The check is done using the real UID/GID instead of the effective one. </p> </p></blockquote> <blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>: <span class="simpara"> Because PHP's integer type is signed and many platforms use 32bit integers, some filesystem functions may return unexpected results for files which are larger than 2GB. </span></p></blockquote> </div> <div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.file-exists-examples"> <h3 class="title">Examples</h3> <p class="para"> <div class="example" id="example-2364"> <p><strong>Example #1 Testing whether a file exists</strong></p> <div class="example-contents"> <div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000"> <span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br />$filename </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'/path/to/foo.txt'</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br />if (</span><span style="color: #0000BB">file_exists</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$filename</span><span style="color: #007700">)) {<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"The file </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$filename</span><span style="color: #DD0000"> exists"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />} else {<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"The file </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$filename</span><span style="color: #DD0000"> does not exist"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />}<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span> </span> </code></div> </div> </div> </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 errors" id="refsect1-function.file-exists-errors"> <h3 class="title">Errors/Exceptions</h3> <p class="para"> Upon failure, an <strong><code>E_WARNING</code></strong> is emitted. </p> </div> <div class="refsect1 notes" id="refsect1-function.file-exists-notes"> <h3 class="title">Notes</h3> <blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>: <span class="simpara">The results of this function are cached. See <span class="function"><a href="function.clearstatcache.html" class="function">clearstatcache()</a></span> for more details.</span></p></blockquote> <div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong><p class="simpara">As of PHP 5.0.0, this function can also be used with <em class="emphasis">some</em> URL wrappers. Refer to <a href="wrappers.html" class="xref">Supported Protocols and Wrappers</a> to determine which wrappers support <span class="function"><a href="function.stat.html" class="function">stat()</a></span> family of functionality.</p></div> </div> <div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.file-exists-seealso"> <h3 class="title">See Also</h3> <p class="para"> <ul class="simplelist"> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-readable.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_readable()</a> - Tells whether a file exists and is readable</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-writable.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_writable()</a> - Tells whether the filename is writable</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.is-file.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">is_file()</a> - Tells whether the filename is a regular file</span></li> <li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.file.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">file()</a> - Reads entire file into an array</span></li> </ul> </p> </div> </div><hr /><div class="manualnavbar" style="text-align: center;"> <div class="prev" style="text-align: left; float: left;"><a href="function.fgetss.html">fgetss</a></div> <div class="next" style="text-align: right; float: right;"><a href="function.file-get-contents.html">file_get_contents</a></div> <div class="up"><a href="ref.filesystem.html">Filesystem Functions</a></div> <div class="home"><a href="index.html">PHP Manual</a></div> </div></body></html>