How can I check if a URL exists via PHP?

Question

How do I check if a URL exists (not 404) in PHP?

Answer 1

kind of an old thread, but.. i do this:

$file = 'http://www.google.com';
$file_headers = @get_headers($file);
if ($file_headers) {
    $exists = true;
} else {
    $exists = false;
}