PHP Manual: Gets file modification time

Description

intfalse 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 on failure. The time is returned as a Unix timestamp, which is suitable for the date function.

Errors/Exceptions

Upon failure, an E_WARNING is emitted.

Examples

Example #1 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:
Note that time resolution may differ from one file system to another.

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 Supported Protocols and Wrappers to determine which wrappers support stat family of functionality.