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PHP : Function Reference : Filesystem Functions : filemtime

filemtime

Gets file modification time (PHP 4, PHP 5)
int filemtime ( string filename )

This function returns the time when the data blocks of a file were being written to, that is, the time when the content of the file was changed.

Parameters

filename

Path to the file.

Return Values

Returns the time the file was last modified, or FALSE in case of an error. The time is returned as a Unix timestamp, which is suitable for the date() function.

Examples

Example 633. filemtime() example

<?php
// outputs e.g.  somefile.txt was last modified: December 29 2002 22:16:23.

$filename = 'somefile.txt';
if (
file_exists($filename)) {
   echo
"$filename was last modified: " . date ("F d Y H:i:s.", filemtime($filename));
}
?>


Notes

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 Appendix O, List of Supported Protocols/Wrappers for a listing of which wrappers support stat() family of functionality.

Related Examples ( Source code ) » filemtime




Code Examples / Notes » filemtime

24-aug-2001 03:08

When using this function to get the modified date of a directory, it returns the date of the file in that directory that was last modified.

solarijj

To get the modification date of some remote file, you can use the fine function by notepad at codewalker dot com (with improvements by dma05 at web dot de and madsen at lillesvin dot net).
But you can achieve the same result more easily now with stream_get_meta_data (PHP>4.3.0).
However a problem may arise if some redirection occurs. In such a case, the server HTTP response contains no Last-Modified header, but there is a Location header indicating where to find the file. The function below takes care of any redirections, even multiple redirections, so that you reach the real file of which you want the last modification date.
hih,
JJS.
<?php
// get remote file last modification date (returns unix timestamp)
function GetRemoteLastModified( $uri )
{
// default
$unixtime = 0;

$fp = fopen( $uri, "r" );
if( !$fp ) {return;}

$MetaData = stream_get_meta_data( $fp );

foreach( $MetaData['wrapper_data'] as $response )
{
// case: redirection
if( substr( strtolower($response), 0, 10 ) == 'location: ' )
{
$newUri = substr( $response, 10 );
fclose( $fp );
return GetRemoteLastModified( $newUri );
}
// case: last-modified
elseif( substr( strtolower($response), 0, 15 ) == 'last-modified: ' )
{
$unixtime = strtotime( substr($response, 15) );
break;
}
}
fclose( $fp );
return $unixtime;
}
?>


paranoid

To get the last modification time of a directory, you can use this:
<pre>
$getLastModDir = filemtime("/path/to/directory/.");
</pre>
Take note on the last dot which is needed to see the directory as a file and to actually get a last modification date of it.
This comes in handy when you want just one 'last updated' message on the frontpage of your website and still taking all files of your website into account.
Regards,
Frank Keijzers


madsen

There are a couple of things to point out about the otherwise great example posted by "notepad at codewalkers dot com".
First of all, as "dma05 at web dot de" pointed out, use HEAD instead of GET - that's being nice to your fellow man.
Second, it will only allow communication on port 80. That can easilly be solved.
<?php
function remote_filemtime($url)
{
   $uri = parse_url($url);
   $uri['port'] = isset($uri['port']) ? $uri['port'] : 80;
   $handle = @fsockopen($uri['host'], $uri['port']);
   // ...
}
?>
But hey, thanks a lot for the function! I've really had great use of it.


adam

The snippet of code earlier that allows you to delete all files older than 2 weeks uses the function (filemtime) - which checks the original create date of the file (filesystem independent).  You MAY want to use filectime() - that looks at when the file was last changed on YOUR file system.
       if (is_dir("$path") )
       {
          $handle=opendir($path);
          while (false!==($file = readdir($handle))) {
              if ($file != "." && $file != "..") {  
                  $Diff = (time() - filectime("$path/$file"))/60/60/24;
                  if ($Diff > 14) unlink("$path/$file");
              }
          }
          closedir($handle);
       }


gerardj

The above code works fine if you place it on each page you want a date stamp on.  I've found that if you place a reference such as filemtime(__FILE__) in an included or required file, that the modification time of the inherited file will be returned, not the time of the file that did the ineriting.

aidan

If you're looking to convert timestamps to a duration, for example "10" to "10 seconds", or "61" to "1 minute 1 second", try the Duration class.
http://aidanlister.com/repos/v/Duration.php


jay

If you want this functionality for the parent web page you should use getlastmod()
i.e.
<?php echo "Last modified: ".date( "F d Y H:i:s.", getlastmod() ); ?>
within the included page... i.e. as a commont footer include for all pages


laurent dot pireyn

If you use filemtime with a symbolic link, you will get the modification time of the file actually linked to. To get informations about the link self, use lstat.

csnyder

If PHP's integer type is only 32 bits on your system, filemtime() will fail on files over 2GB with the warning "stat failed". All stat()-related commands will exhibit the same behavior.
As a workaround, you can call the system's stat command to get the modification time of a file:
On FreeBSD:
$mtime = exec ('stat -f %m '. escapeshellarg ($path));
On Linux:
$mtime = exec ('stat -c %Y '. escapeshellarg ($path));
Thanks to "mpb dot mail at gmail dot com" for his/her similar comment on stat().


notepad

i needed the ability to grab the mod time of an image on a remote site. the following is the solution with the help of Joe Ferris.
<?php
function filemtime_remote($uri)
{
   $uri = parse_url($uri);
   $handle = @fsockopen($uri['host'],80);
   if(!$handle)
       return 0;
   fputs($handle,"GET $uri[path] HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: $uri[host]\r\n\r\n");
   $result = 0;
   while(!feof($handle))
   {
       $line = fgets($handle,1024);
       if(!trim($line))
           break;
       $col = strpos($line,':');
       if($col !== false)
       {
           $header = trim(substr($line,0,$col));
           $value = trim(substr($line,$col+1));
           if(strtolower($header) == 'last-modified')
           {
               $result = strtotime($value);
               break;
           }
       }
   }
   fclose($handle);
   return $result;
}
// echo filemtime_remote('http://www.somesite.com/someimage.jpg');
?>


benan tumkaya benantumkaya

Here is a small but handy script that you can use to find which files in your server are modified after a  date/time that you specify. This script will go through all folders in the specified directory recursively and echo the modified files with the last modified date/time...
//Starts Here
//Put here the directory you want to search for. Put / if you want to search your entire domain
$dir='/';
//Put the date you want to compare with in the format of:  YYYY-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
$comparedatestr="2006-08-12 00:00:00";
$comparedate=strtotime($comparedatestr);
//I run the function here to start the search.
directory_tree($dir,$comparedate);
//This is the function which is doing the search...
function directory_tree($address,$comparedate){
@$dir = opendir($address);
 if(!$dir){ return 0; }
       while($entry = readdir($dir)){
               if(is_dir("$address/$entry") && ($entry != ".." && $entry != ".")){                            
                       directory_tree("$address/$entry",$comparedate);
               }
                else   {
                 if($entry != ".." && $entry != ".") {
                 
                   $fulldir=$address.'/'.$entry;
                   $last_modified = filemtime($fulldir);
                   $last_modified_str= date("Y-m-d h:i:s", $last_modified);
                      if($comparedate < $last_modified)  {
                         echo $fulldir.'=>'.$last_modified_str;
                         echo "
";
                      }
                }
           }
     }
}


dma05

concerning "notepad at codewalkers dot com"'s code:
this code is pretty neat, but i just wanted to note that using the "HEAD"-method instead of the "GET"-method in the http-request might be preferrable, since then not the whole resource is being downloaded...
http/1.1 definiton snippet:
Section "9.4 HEAD"
The HEAD method is identical to GET except that the server MUST NOT return a message-body in the response. The metainformation contained in the HTTP headers in response to a HEAD request SHOULD be identical to the information sent in response to a GET request. This method can be used for obtaining metainformation about the entity implied by the request without transferring the entity-body itself. This method is often used for testing hypertext links for validity, accessibility, and recent modification. [...]
-- snippet end ---
the code would then be...:
-- snippet ---
fputs($handle,"HEAD $uri[path] HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: $uri[host]\r\n\r\n");
-- snippet end ---
regards, Magnus


wookie

Another little handy tool; to get the most recent modified time from files in a directory. It even does recursive directories if you set the $doRecursive param to true. Based on a file/directory list function I saw somewhere on this site. ;)
function mostRecentModifiedFileTime($dirName,$doRecursive) {
   $d = dir($dirName);
$lastModified = 0;
   while($entry = $d->read()) {
       if ($entry != "." && $entry != "..") {
           if (!is_dir($dirName."/".$entry)) {
$currentModified = filemtime($dirName."/".$entry);
           } else if ($doRecursive && is_dir($dirName."/".$entry)) {
$currentModified = mostRecentModifiedFileTime($dirName."/".$entry,true);
}
if ($currentModified > $lastModified){
$lastModified = $currentModified;
}
       }
   }
   $d->close();
return $lastModified;
}


09-dec-2004 04:30

A comment below states
 "When using this function to get the modified date of a directory,
  it returns the date of the file in that directory that was last modified."
this is not (necessarily) correct, the modification time of a directory will be the time of the last file *creation* in a directory (and not in it's sub directories).


habazi

"this is not (necessarily) correct, the modification time of a directory will be the time of the last file *creation* in a directory (and not in it's sub directories)."
This is not (necessarily) correct either. In *nix the timestamp can be independently set. For example the command "touch directory" updates the timestamp of a directory without file creation.
Also file removal will update the timestamp of a directory.


bastiaan nelissen

"This function returns the time when the data blocks of a file were being written to, that is, the time when the content of the file was changed."
Well, the content of the file does not need to 'change'. Saving  file content without changes will be enough.
Understanding this helped me.


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