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filetype

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

filetypeGets file type

Description

filetype(string $filename): string|false

Returns the type of the given file.

Parameters

filename

Path to the file.

Return Values

Returns the type of the file. Possible values are fifo, char, dir, block, link, file, socket and unknown.

Returns false if an error occurs. filetype() will also produce an E_NOTICE message if the stat call fails or if the file type is unknown.

Errors/Exceptions

Upon failure, an E_WARNING is emitted.

Examples

Example #1 filetype() example

<?php

echo filetype('/etc/passwd');
echo
"\n";
echo
filetype('/etc/');

?>

The above example will output:

file
dir

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

  • is_dir() - Tells whether the filename is a directory
  • is_file() - Tells whether the filename is a regular file
  • is_link() - Tells whether the filename is a symbolic link
  • file_exists() - Checks whether a file or directory exists
  • mime_content_type() - Detect MIME Content-type for a file
  • pathinfo() - Returns information about a file path
  • stat() - Gives information about a file

add a note

User Contributed Notes 4 notes

up
23
ruach at chpc dot utah dot edu
20 years ago
There are 7 values that can be returned. Here is a list of them and what each one means

block: block special device

char: character special device

dir: directory

fifo: FIFO (named pipe)

file: regular file

link: symbolic link

unknown: unknown file type
up
8
adlerweb
14 years ago
filetype() does not work for files >=2GB on x86 Linux. You can use stat as a workarround:

$type=trim(`stat -c%F $file`);

Note that stat returns diffenerent strings ("regular file","directory",...)
up
-3
7r6ivyeo at mail dot com
16 years ago
I use the CLI version of PHP on Windows Vista. Here's how to determine if a file is marked "hidden" by NTFS:

<?php
function is_hidden_file($fn) {

$attr = trim(exec('FOR %A IN ("'.$fn.'") DO @ECHO %~aA'));

if(
$attr[3] === 'h')
return
true;

return
false;
}
?>

Changing <?php if($attr[3] === 'h') ?> to <?php if($attr[4] === 's') ?> will check for system files.

This should work on any Windows OS that provides DOS shell commands.
up
-4
Abhi Jain
13 years ago
Putting @ in front of the filetype() function does not prevent it from raising a warning (Lstat failed), if E_WARNING is enabled on your error_reporting.

The most common cause of filetype() raising this warning and not showing a filetype() in the output (it actually returns NULL) is, if you happened to pass just the 'Dir or File Name' and not the complete "Absolute or Relative Path" to that 'file or Dir'. It may still read that file and return its filetype as "file" but for Dir's it shows warning and outputs NULL.
eg:
$pathToFile = '/var/www';
$file = 'test.php';
$dir = 'somedir';

Output for filetype($file) will be returned as 'file' and possibly without any warning, but for filetype($dir), it will return NULL with the warning "Lstat failed", unless you pass a complete path to that dir, i.e. filetype($pathToFile.'/'.$dir).

This happened to me and found this solution after a lot of trial and error. Thought, it might help someone.
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