PHP lstat() Function

The lstat() function returns information about a file or symbolic link.

array lstat ( string $filename )

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

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.

This function returns an array with the following elements:

  • [0] or [dev] - Device number
  • [1] or [ino] - Inode number
  • [2] or [mode] - Inode protection mode
  • [3] or [nlink] - Number of links
  • [4] or [uid] - User ID of owner
  • [5] or [gid] - Group ID of owner
  • [6] or [rdev] - Inode device type
  • [7] or [size] - Size in bytes
  • [8] or [atime] - Last access (as Unix timestamp)
  • [9] or [mtime] - Last modified (as Unix timestamp)
  • [10] or [ctime] - Last inode change (as Unix timestamp)
  • [11] or [blksize] - Blocksize of filesystem IO (if supported)
  • [12] or [blocks] - Number of blocks allocated
  • Example -

    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
    )