Gives information about a file or symbolic link

# lstat

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

lstat — Gives information about a file or symbolic link

### Description

lstat(string `$filename`): array|false

Gathers the statistics of the file or symbolic link named by `filename`.

### Parameters

`filename`

  Path to a file or a symbolic link.

### Return Values

See the manual page for stat() for information on the structure of the array that lstat() returns. This function is identical to the stat() function except that if the `filename` parameter is a symbolic link, the status of the symbolic link is returned, not the status of the file pointed to by the symbolic link.

On failure, `false` is returned.

### Errors/Exceptions

Upon failure, an `E_WARNING` is emitted.

### Examples

Example #1 Comparison of stat() and lstat()

`<?php
symlink('uploads.php', 'uploads');
// Contrast information for uploads.php and uploads
array_diff(stat('uploads'), lstat('uploads'));
?>`

The above example will output something similar to:

Information that differs between the two files.

    Array
    (
        [ino] => 97236376
        [mode] => 33188
        [size] => 34
        [atime] => 1223580003
        [mtime] => 1223581848
        [ctime] => 1223581848
        [blocks] => 8
    )

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

### See Also

- stat() - Gives information about a file

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