file_exists() returns false, but the file DOES exist

Question

I\'m having a very weird issue with file_exists(). I\'m using this function to check if 2 different files in the same folders do exist. I\'ve double-checked, they BOTH do ex

Answer 1

This answer may be a bit hacky, but its been working for me -

$file = 'path/to/file.jpg';
$file = $_SERVER['REQUEST_SCHEME'].'://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].'/'.$file;
$file_headers = @get_headers($file);
if($file_headers[0] == 'HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found') {
    $exists = false;
}else{
    $exists = true;
}

apparently $_SERVER['REQUEST_SCHEME'] is a bit dicey to use with IIS 7.0 + PHP 5.3 so you could probably look for a better way to add in the protocol.

I found this answer here http://php.net/manual/en/function.file-exists.php#75064