PHP 7.0.6 Released

    linkinfo

    (PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

    linkinfo — Gets information about a link

    Description

    int linkinfo ( string $path )

    Gets information about a link.

    This function is used to verify if a link (pointed to by path) really exists (using the same method as the S_ISLNK macro defined in stat.h).

    Parameters

    path

    Path to the link.

    Return Values

    linkinfo() returns the st_dev field of the Unix C stat structure returned by the lstat system call. Returns 0 or FALSE in case of error.

    Changelog

    Version Description
    5.3.0 This function is now available on Windows platforms (Vista, Server 2008 or greater).

    Examples

    Example #1 linkinfo() example

    <?php

    echo linkinfo('/vmlinuz'); // 835

    ?>

    See Also

    User Contributed Notes

    rjb at robertjbrown dot com
    4 years ago
    I expected this function to return FALSE or 0 if a symbolic link did not exist (per the documentation above), but that's not what happened. Reading the man page for the Linux kerne's stat call here: http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/online/pages/man2/stat.2.html it says this:

    RETURN VALUE - On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

    ... which is what is happening in my case. I am doing a linkinfo('/path/to/file'); on a missing symlink, and I get back a value of -1. As we know, a value of -1 is not going to evaluate to a FALSE or 0.

    My point - be careful with return values for missing symlinks.
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