How do I check if a file exists on my hard drive using php? (Linux)

Question

I have a php application that will read return files from the database, for this, I need to know if the file exists on the system hard drive.

I tried it this way: if(file_exists("/caminho/do/arquivo/".$retorno)), the variable $retorno contains the file name with the correct extension. When I run my application through the linux shell (php return.php), it understands that all the files exist, but when I check the folder, it is empty.

What could be going wrong?

Answer 1

This happens because the function file_exists check if a file or directory exists. And as you said the folder exists but is empty, the function will always return true. To solve this just use the function is_file.

if (is_file("/caminho/do/arquivo/{$retorno}")) {
   // Sua lógica aqui...
}