(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
file_exists — Checks whether a file or directory exists
$filename
)Checks whether a file or directory exists.
filenamePath to the file or directory.
On windows, use //computername/share/filename or \\computername\share\filename to check files on network shares.
Returns TRUE if the file or directory specified by
filename exists; FALSE otherwise.
Note:
This function will return
FALSEfor symlinks pointing to non-existing files.
This function returns FALSE for files inaccessible due to safe mode restrictions. However these
files still can be included if
they are located in safe_mode_include_dir.
Note:
The check is done using the real UID/GID instead of the effective one.
Note: 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.
Example #1 Testing whether a file exists
<?php
$filename = '/path/to/foo.txt';
if (file_exists($filename)) {
echo "The file $filename exists";
} else {
echo "The file $filename does not exist";
}
?>
Upon failure, an E_WARNING is emitted.
Note: The results of this function are cached. See clearstatcache() for more details.
As of PHP 5.0.0, this function can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to Supported Protocols and Wrappers to determine which wrappers support stat() family of functionality.
I needed to measure performance for a project, so I did a simple test with one million file_exists() and is_file() checks. In one scenario, only seven of the files existed. In the second, all files existed. is_file() needed 3.0 for scenario one and 3.3 seconds for scenario two. file_exists() needed 2.8 and 2.9 seconds, respectively. The absolute numbers are off course system-dependant, but it clearly indicates that file_exists() is faster.
In response to seejohnrun's version to check if a URL exists. Even if the file doesn't exist you're still going to get 404 headers. You can still use get_headers if you don't have the option of using CURL..
$file = 'http://www.domain.com/somefile.jpg';
$file_headers = @get_headers($file);
if($file_headers[0] == 'HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found') {
$exists = false;
}
else {
$exists = true;
}
Note: The results of this function are cached. See clearstatcache() for more details.
That's a pretty big note. Don't forget this one, since it can make your file_exists() behave unexpectedly - probably at production time ;)
this code here is in case you want to check if a file exists in another server:
<?php
function fileExists($path){
return (@fopen($path,"r")==true);
}
?>
unfortunately the file_exists can't reach remote servers, so I used the fopen function.
The following script checks if there is a file with the same name and adds _n to the end of the file name, where n increases. if img.jpg is on the server, it tries with img_0.jpg, checks if it is on the server and tries with img_1.jpg.
<?php
$img = "images/".$_FILES['bilde']['name'];
$t=0;
while(file_exists($img)){
$img = "images/".$_FILES['bilde']['name'];
$img=substr($img,0,strpos($img,"."))."_$t".strstr($img,".");
$t++;
}
move_uploaded_file($_FILES['bilde']['tmp_name'], $img);
?>
Great alternative to file_exists() is stream_resolve_include_path()
For some reason, none of the url_exists() functions posted here worked for me, so here is my own tweaked version of it.
<?php
function url_exists($url){
$url = str_replace("http://", "", $url);
if (strstr($url, "/")) {
$url = explode("/", $url, 2);
$url[1] = "/".$url[1];
} else {
$url = array($url, "/");
}
$fh = fsockopen($url[0], 80);
if ($fh) {
fputs($fh,"GET ".$url[1]." HTTP/1.1\nHost:".$url[0]."\n\n");
if (fread($fh, 22) == "HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found") { return FALSE; }
else { return TRUE; }
} else { return FALSE;}
}
?>
Older php (v4.x) do not work with get_headers() function. So I made this one and working.
<?php
function url_exists($url) {
// Version 4.x supported
$handle = curl_init($url);
if (false === $handle)
{
return false;
}
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, true); // this works
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, false);
$connectable = curl_exec($handle);
curl_close($handle);
return $connectable;
}
?>
When using file_exists, seems you cannot do:
<?php
foreach ($possibles as $poss)
{
if ( file_exists(SITE_RANGE_IMAGE_PATH .$this->range_id .'/ '.$poss .'.jpg') )
{
// exists
}
else
{
// not found
}
}
?>
so you must do:
<?php
foreach ($possibles as $poss)
{
$img = SITE_RANGE_IMAGE_PATH .$this->range_id .'/ '.$poss .'.jpg'
if ( file_exists($img) )
{
// exists
}
else
{
// not found
}
}
?>
Then things will work fine.
This is at least the case on this Windows system running php 5.2.5 and apache 2.2.3
Not sure if it is down to the concatenation or the fact theres a constant in there, i'm about to run away and test just that...
If you are trying to access a Windows Network Share you have to configure your WebServer with enough permissions for example:
$file = fopen("\\siscomx17\c\websapp.log",'r');
You will get an error telling you that the pathname doesnt exist this will be because Apache or IIS run as LocalSystem so you will have to enter to Services and configure Apache on "Open a session as" Create a new user that has enough permissions and also be sure that target share has the proper permissions.
Hope this save some hours of research to anyone.
file_exists() will return FALSE for broken links
$ ln -s does_not_exist my_link
$ ls -l
lrwxr-xr-x 1 user group 14 May 13 17:28 my_link -> does_not_exist
$ php -r "var_dump(file_exists('my_link'));"
bool(false)
This is an example if you want to know that a file exists (if that file isn't on your server):
$fileUrl = "http://www.examplecom/test.jpg";
$AgetHeaders = @get_headers($sourcePath);
if (preg_match("|200|", $AgetHeaders[0])) {
// file exists
} else {
// file doesn't exists
}
That is true feshi. But, if you have your server configured correctly, those access logs will only be accessible by an admin or the root account. The webuser account that runs the php script will be unable to start reading from that file. That's the easiest fix.
Although PHP 5+ supports this function with FTP, it appears that file_exists() used on ftp will always return TRUE, even if the file or directory does not exist.
If you simply want to check that some file (not directory) exists, and concerned about performance, try is_file() instead.
I timed is_file and file_exists, it seems like is_file() is almost 2x faster when a file exists and about the same when it doesn't.
If you use open_basedir in php.ini and use file_exists for file outside open_basedir path, you will not be warned at log and file_exists returns false even if file really exists.
The code can be used to t a filename that can be used to create a new filename.
<?php
function generateRandomString($length = 8)
{
$string = "";
//character that can be used
$possible = "0123456789bcdfghjkmnpqrstvwxyz";
for($i=0;$i < $length;$i++)
{
$char = substr($possible, rand(0, strlen($possible)-1), 1);
if (!strstr($string, $char))
{
$string .= $char;
}
}
return $string;
}
function randomFile($folder = '', $extension = '')
{
$folder = trim($folder);
$folder = ($folder == '') ? './' : $folder;
//check if directory exist
if (!is_dir($folder)){ die('invalid folder given!'); }
//generate a filepath
$filepath = $folder . "/" . generateRandomString(128) . $extension;
//check if that filepath already exist, if it exist if generates again
//till if gets one that doesn't exist
while(file_exists($filepath))
{
$filepath = $folder . "/" . generateRandomString(128) . $extension;
}
return $filepath;
}
?>
I made a bit of code that sees whether a file served via RTSP is there or not:
<?php
function rtsp_exists($url) {
$server = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_HOST);
$port = "554";
$hdrs = "DESCRIBE " .$url ." RTSP/1.0"."\r\n\r\n";
//Open connection (15s timeout)
$sh = fsockopen($server, $port, $err, $err_otp, 15);
//Check connections
if(!$sh) return false;
//Send headers
fputs($sh,$hdrs);
//Receive data (1KB)
$rtds = fgets($sh, 1024);
//Close socket
fclose($sh);
return strpos($rtds, "200 OK") > 0;
}
?>
Note on openspecies entry (excellent btw, thanks!).
If your server cannot resolve its own DNS, use the following:
$f = preg_replace('/www\.yourserver\.(net|com)/', getenv('SERVER_ADDR'), $f);
Just before the $h = @get_headers($f); line.
Replace the extensions (net|com|...) in the regexp expression as appropriate.
EXAMPLE:
File you are checking for: http://www.youserver.net/myfile.gif
Server IP: 10.0.0.125
The preg_replace will effectively 'resolve' the address for you by assigning $f as follows:
http://10.0.0.125/myfile.gif
//Mirza Qasim Ali Script DF
checkRemoteFile('www.ab.com/images/image.jpg');
function checkRemoteFile($url)
{
$file = $url;
$file_headers = @get_headers($file);
switch($file_headers[0])
{
case 'HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found':
return false;
break;
case 'HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily':
return false;
break;
default:
return true;
}
}
On Japanese Windows system, here is the other way to figure out the file existence to avoid SJIS 5C problem.
<?php
function sjis_file_exists($filename)
{
return exec("if exist \"$filename\" (echo 1) else (echo 0)");
}
?>
I want to warn developers using PHP 5.0.4 of a bug that don't happen in current stable versions:
file_exists seems to cache the response, even when the file has been moved.
An example:
<?php
/*
When a file which has been called by file_exist
has been moved, the file_exist next call gives true again
*/
$f = "foo.txt";
file_put_contents( $f, "content" );
if(file_exists( $f )){
rename( $f, $f.".moved" );
}
if( file_exists( $f )){
echo "Wrong! the file has just been moved! file_exists should return false.";
rename( $f, $f.".willnotwork" ); //It gives a warning
}
?>
The same code tested in PHP 5.2.4-2ubuntu5.6 with Suhosin-Patch 0.9.6.2 (cli) behaves correctly.
My way of making sure files exist before including them is as follows (example: including a class file in an autoloader):
<?php
function __autoload($name)
{
$path = explode(":", ini_get('include_path')); //get all the possible paths to the file (preloaded with the file structure of the project)
foreach($path as $tryThis)
{
//try each possible iteration of the file name and use the first one that comes up
// name.class.php first
$exists = file_exists($tryThis . '/' . $name . '.class.php');
if ($exists)
{
include_once($name . '.class.php');
return;
}
//ok that didn't work, try the other way around
$exists = file_exists($tryThis . '/' . 'class.' . $name . '.php');
if ($exists)
{
include_once('class.' . $name . '.php');
return;
}
//neither did that...let's try as an inc.php
$exists = file_exists($tryThis . '/' . $name . '.inc.php');
if ($exists)
{
include_once($name . '.inc.php');
return;
}
}
// can't find it...
die("Class $name could not be found!");
}
?>
Here is a simpler version of url_exists:
<?php
function url_exists($url) {
$hdrs = @get_headers($url);
return is_array($hdrs) ? preg_match('/^HTTP\\/\\d+\\.\\d+\\s+2\\d\\d\\s+.*$/',$hdrs[0]) : false;
}
?>
I was having problems with the file_exists when using urls, so I made this function:
<?php
function file_exists_2($filePath)
{
return ($ch = curl_init($filePath)) ? @curl_close($ch) || true : false;
}
?>
Cheers!
Small error in florinel2k's example
$sourcePath should be $fileUrl, otherwise it works well for me.
//Corrected
This is an example if you want to know that a file exists (if that file isn't on your server):
$fileUrl = "http://www.examplecom/test.jpg";
$AgetHeaders = @get_headers($fileUrl);
if (preg_match("|200|", $AgetHeaders[0])) {
// file exists
} else {
// file doesn't exists
}
If the file being tested by file_exists() is a file on a symbolically-linked directory structure, the results depend on the permissions of the directory tree node underneath the linked tree. PHP under a web server (i.e. apache) will respect permissions of the file system underneath the symbolic link, contrasting with PHP as a shell script which respects permissions of the directories that are linked (i.e. on top, and visible).
This results in files that appear to NOT exist on a symbolic link, even though they are very much in existance and indeed are readable by the web server.
I wrote this little handy function to check if an image exists in a directory, and if so, return a filename which doesnt exists e.g. if you try 'flower.jpg' and it exists, then it tries 'flower[1].jpg' and if that one exists it tries 'flower[2].jpg' and so on. It works fine at my place. Ofcourse you can use it also for other filetypes than images.
<?php
function imageExists($image,$dir) {
$i=1; $probeer=$image;
while(file_exists($dir.$probeer)) {
$punt=strrpos($image,".");
if(substr($image,($punt-3),1)!==("[") && substr($image,($punt-1),1)!==("]")) {
$probeer=substr($image,0,$punt)."[".$i."]".
substr($image,($punt),strlen($image)-$punt);
} else {
$probeer=substr($image,0,($punt-3))."[".$i."]".
substr($image,($punt),strlen($image)-$punt);
}
$i++;
}
return $probeer;
}
?>
I recently had an issue with PLESK and copying file to other directories with the move_uploaded file function.
This would work on every linux server except plesk servers. I could figure it out and have yet to find out. I had to create a work a round and decided to use the exec() function.
As noted above the file_exist() function must need to wait for some time and I found the looking function a waste of resouces and didn't work for me anyway. So this is what I came up with.
function cp($source,$destination){
$cmd="cp -u ".$source ." ".$destination; //create the command string to copy with the update option
exec($cmd); //exec command
$cmd_test="ls -la ".$destination; //list file
exec($cmd_test,$out);
//If the file is present it $out[0] key will contain the file info.
//if it is not present it will be null
if (isset($out[0])){
return true;
}else{
return false;
}
}
If checking for a file newly created by an external program in Windows then file_exists() does not recognize it immediately. Iy seems that a short timeout may be required.
<?
$file = 'file.tmp';
if ($h = popen("start \"bla\" touch $file", "r")) {
pclose($h);
// now I would like know if a file was created
// note: usleep not supported
$start = gettimeofday();
while (!file_exists(trim($file, " '\""))) {
$stop = gettimeofday();
if ( 1000000 * ($stop['sec'] - $start['sec']) + $stop['usec'] - $start['usec'] > 500000) break; // wait a moment
}
if (file_exists($file)) // now should be reliable
?>
file_exists will have trouble finding your file if the file permissions are not read enabled for 'other' when not owned by your php user. I thought I was having trouble with a directory name having a space in it (/users/andrew/Pictures/iPhoto Library/AlbumData.xml) but the reality was that there weren't read permissions on Pictures, iPhoto Library or AlbumData.xml. Once I fixed that, file_exists worked.
I spent the last two hours wondering what was wrong with my if statement: file_exists($file) was returning false, however I could call include($file) with no problem.
It turns out that I didn't realize that the php include_path value I had set in the .htaccess file didn't carry over to file_exists, is_file, etc.
Thus:
<?PHP
// .htaccess php_value include_path '/home/user/public_html/';
// includes lies in /home/user/public_html/includes/
//doesn't work, file_exists returns false
if ( file_exists('includes/config.php') )
{
include('includes/config.php');
}
//does work, file_exists returns true
if ( file_exists('/home/user/public_html/includes/config.php') )
{
include('includes/config.php');
}
?>
Just goes to show that "shortcuts for simplicity" like setting the include_path in .htaccess can just cause more grief in the long run.
There is a subtle difference in behaviour of file_exists(), depending on the OS. Suppose you test a path ending with a slash. If the corresponding filesystem object exists, but is not a directory but a file, file_exists() will return true on Windows and false on Linux.
Ie, file_exists( $path_from_root . '/somedir/file/' ) returns true on Windows if that file exists, and false on Linux.
Tested with PHP 5.3.3 on Ubuntu and PHP 5.2.9 on Windows.
Function url_exists() through CURL.
<?php
function url_exists($url) {
if (!$fp = curl_init($url)) return false;
return true;
}
?>
I wrote a very simple function that allows you to search a folder for a file name with a regular expression. It can handle both PREG and EREG regexps and can accept different case sensitivities for EREG regexps.
function regExpFile($regExp, $dir, $regType='P', $case='') {
# Two parameters accepted by $regType are E for ereg* functions
# and P for preg* functions
$func = ( $regType == 'P' ) ? 'preg_match' : 'ereg' . $case;
# Note, technically anything other than P will use ereg* functions;
# however, you can specify whether to use ereg or eregi by
# declaring $case as "i" to use eregi rather than ereg
$open = opendir($dir);
while( ($file = readdir($open)) !== false ) {
if ( $func($regExp, $file) ) {
return true;
}
} // End while
return false;
} // End function
Basically if you supply anything but "P" for $regType it will assume you're using EREG regexps. The case should only be blank or "i".
You could use document root to be on the safer side because the function does not take relative paths:
<?php
if( file_exists( $_SERVER{'DOCUMENT_ROOT'} . "/my_images/abc.jpg")) {
...
}
?>
Do not forget to put the slash '/', e.g. my doc root in Ubuntu is /var/www without the slash.
here a function to check if a certain URL exist:
<?php
function url_exists($url) {
$a_url = parse_url($url);
if (!isset($a_url['port'])) $a_url['port'] = 80;
$errno = 0;
$errstr = '';
$timeout = 30;
if(isset($a_url['host']) && $a_url['host']!=gethostbyname($a_url['host'])){
$fid = fsockopen($a_url['host'], $a_url['port'], $errno, $errstr, $timeout);
if (!$fid) return false;
$page = isset($a_url['path']) ?$a_url['path']:'';
$page .= isset($a_url['query'])?'?'.$a_url['query']:'';
fputs($fid, 'HEAD '.$page.' HTTP/1.0'."\r\n".'Host: '.$a_url['host']."\r\n\r\n");
$head = fread($fid, 4096);
fclose($fid);
return preg_match('#^HTTP/.*\s+[200|302]+\s#i', $head);
} else {
return false;
}
}
?>
in my CMS, I am using it with those lines:
<?php
if(!isset($this->f_exist[$image]['exist']))
if(strtolower(substr($fimage,0,4)) == 'http' || strtolower(substr($fimage,0,4)) == 'www.'){
if(strtolower(substr($image,0,4)) == 'www.'){
$fimage = 'http://'.$fimage;
$image = 'http://'.$image;
}
$this->f_exist[$image]['exist'] = $this->url_exists($fimage); //for now
} else {
$this->f_exist[$image]['exist'] = ($fimage!='' && file_exists($fimage) && is_file($fimage) && is_readable($fimage) && filesize($fimage)>0);
}
}
?>
Small adjustment to the url_exist() by marufit at gmail dot com. Some sites like digg.com for example check the HTTPHEADER to see who is requesting the page and will PHP will throw an error. Adding the following line fixes the issue:
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, Array("User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.15) Gecko/20080623 Firefox/2.0.0.15") ); // request as if Firefox
<?php
function url_exists($url) {
// Version 4.x supported
$handle = curl_init($url);
if (false === $handle)
{
return false;
}
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_FAILONERROR, true); // this works
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, Array("User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.15) Gecko/20080623 Firefox/2.0.0.15") ); // request as if Firefox
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, false);
$connectable = curl_exec($handle);
curl_close($handle);
return $connectable;
}
?>
Try this replacement if you are having issues with safe mode restrictions:
<?php
function file_exists_2($dir, $file)
{
$ret = exec("ls ".$dir." | grep ".$file);
return (!empty($ret));
}
?>
I was having an issue because Apache kept resetting permissions for my public_html directory, causing issues with safe mode.
Nathaniel, you should read the manual carefuly next time prior to posting anything here, as all you indicated is the fact you missed the idea of the include_path. To remind - include_path is for some functions only, mainly intended for include and require to simpify include/require operations (kinda way the #include works). It is NOT for any filesystem function, which would be damn annoying than helpful, which is quite understandable and obvious.
my function filexists() function search file firts in include_path:
<?php
function filexists($file)
{
$ps = explode(":", ini_get('include_path'));
foreach($ps as $path)
{
if(file_exists($path.'/'.$file)) return true;
}
if(file_exists($file)) return true;
return false;
}
?>
In response to havran at gmail dot com
Your function url_exists() does not work because it has got a big bug. curl_init does not make a connection to that url until curl_exec() is executed. The return value from curl_init() shows if a curl session can be started.
That function can be rewritten as follows
<?php
class Url
{
/**
* Check if an url is existed
*
* @param string $url
* @access static
* @return bool True if the url is accessible and false if the url is unaccessible or does not exist
* @throws Exception An exception will be thrown when Curl session fails to start
*/
public static function exists($url)
{
if (null === $url || '' === trim($url))
{
throw new Exception('The url to check must be a not empty string');
}
$handle = curl_init($url);
if (false === $handle)
{
throw new Exception('Fail to start Curl session');
}
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);
curl_setopt($handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, false);
// grab Url
$connectable = curl_exec($handle);
// close Curl resource, and free up system resources
curl_close($handle);
return $connectable;
}
}
?>
How to use:
<?php
try
{
if (Url::exists('http://phpvietnam.net'))
{
// Do something here
}
}
catch (Exception $ex)
{
// Do something here
}
?>
