filectime

Gets inode change time of file

&reftitle.description; ``int``false```filectime` `string` `filename`

Gets the inode change time of a file.

&reftitle.parameters;

`filename`

- Path to the file.

&reftitle.returnvalues;

Returns the time the file was last changed, &return.falseforfailure;. The time is returned as a Unix timestamp.

&reftitle.errors; &fs.emits.warning.on.failure;
&reftitle.examples;

### A `filectime` example

    <?php

    // outputs e.g.  somefile.txt was last changed: December 29 2002 22:16:23.

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

    ?>

&reftitle.notes;

Note: In most Unix filesystems, a file is considered changed when its inode data is changed; that is, when the permissions, owner, group, or other metadata from the inode is updated. See also `filemtime` (which is what you want to use when you want to create "Last Modified" footers on web pages) and `fileatime`.

Note also that in some Unix texts the ctime of a file is referred to as being the creation time of the file. This is wrong. There is no creation time for Unix files in most Unix filesystems.

¬e.filesystem-time-res; ¬e.clearstatcache; &tip.fopen-wrapper.stat;
&reftitle.seealso;

- `filemtime`