PHP file exists

Question

Using PHP I need to determine if a file exists.

I've tried file_exists() but the permissions are limited and I don't believe PHP can read the file permissions. The file is a photo and can be viewed via a URL.

eg: http://www.seemeagain.com/users/1000002722/gallery_1312973080.jpg

I've tried is_readable() but I all results again are it doesn't exist.

I've also pointed by functions at index.php to test I was using them correctly and with index.php they return the correct expected results.

Is there a different PHP function I can use to test a file exists by chance or a trick?

thankyou...

you should use that function, but I guess you're doing it the wrong way. Does it show warnings (and is the display of warnings enabled) ? — Karoly Horvath
– Karoly Horvath, Commented Aug 10, 2011 at 11:56
If you don't have permissions to that file locally then you can test for URL existence. — Karolis
– Karolis, Commented Aug 10, 2011 at 11:59

Alex · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-10 11:55:42Z

1

I guess you could use file_get_contents. It returns false on a failure and the contents of a file on success: http://php.net/manual/en/function.file-get-contents.php

answered Aug 10, 2011 at 11:55

Alex

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2 Comments

Wesley van Opdorp Over a year ago

Permissions are the issue, if file_exists fails, this will certainly fail.

Alex Over a year ago

It was more because the op suggested that he was testing external URL's and as far as I'm aware file_exists can only be used for local files with an absolute path

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:04:17Z

0

see file_exists not working for me. Short: file_exists will only check on your server, it is not used to check URLs. You can use curl etc. and check the header.

The documentation states:

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.

This simply means it may work, but usually it won't.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:04

CommunityBot

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answered Aug 10, 2011 at 11:59

FrankS

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Comments

Caner · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-10 12:03:12Z

0

In case you are trying to check a local file:
file_exists() function returns FALSE for files not accessible due to safe mode restrictions. So try this:

   function my_file_exists($dir, $file)
   {
       $ret = exec("ls ".escapeshellarg($dir)." | grep ".escapeshellarg($file));
       return (!empty($ret));
   }

edited Aug 10, 2011 at 12:03

answered Aug 10, 2011 at 11:57

Caner

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1 Comment

jmz Over a year ago

If you're passing variables to shell, use escapeshellarg() to avoid headaches.

Peavey · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-10 13:27:36Z

If PHP has no permissions to read the file, you won't be able to check file existence via file_exists() or is_readable() as these functions depend on being able to access the file locally on your server.

The only solution that will work out is checking if the file exists using a HTTP request.

Alex' solution with file_get_contents() is one way to do that, but you must check if

allow_url_fopen = true

in your php.ini, so

file_get_contents("http://www.seemeagain.com/users/1000002722/gallery_1312973080.jpg")

is allowed to retrieve data from HTTP (http://www.php.net/manual/en/filesystem.configuration.php#ini.allow-url-fopen).

As long as your file is readable via browser, you will be able to check for existance, but you still have to download the whole file, which produces a lot of traffic overhead and takes time.

My suggestion is to use

<?
$headers = get_headers("http://www.seemeagain.com/users/1000002722/gallery_1312973080.jpg");

if ($headers[0] == "HTTP/1.1 200 OK")
{
    // Your file does exist
}
elseif($headers[0] == "HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found")
{
    // Your file does not exist
}
else 
{
    // Some other headers...
    highlight_string(print_r($headers,1));
}

?>

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