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

file_exists() just doesn't work with HTTP addresses.

It only supports filesystem paths (and FTP, if you're using PHP5.)

Please note:

Works :

if  (file_exists($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/folder/test.txt") 
    echo "file exists";

Does not work:

if (file_exists("www.mysite.com/folder/test.txt") 
    echo "file exists";

Answer 2

I found that what works for me to check if a file exists (relative to the current php file it is being executed from) is this piece of code:

$filename = 'myfile.jpg';
$file_path_and_name = dirname(__FILE__) . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . "{$filename}";
if ( file_exists($file_path_and_name) ){
  // file exists. Do some magic...              
} else {
  // file does not exists...
}

Answer 3

I have a new reason this happens - I am using PHP inside a Docker container with a mounted volume for the codebase which resides on my local host machine.

I was getting file_exists == FALSE (inside Composer autoload), but if I copied the filepath into terminal - it did exist! I tried the clearstatche(), checked safe-mode was OFF.

Then I remembered the Docker volume mapping: the absolute path on my local host machine certainly doesn't exist inside the Docker container - which is PHP's perspective on the world.

(I keep forgetting I'm using Docker, because I've made shell functions which wrap the docker run commands so nicely...)

Answer 4

A very simple trick is here that worked for me.

When I write following line, than it returns false.

if(file_exists('/my-dreams-files/'.$_GET['article'].'.html'))

And when I write with removing URL starting slash, then it returns true.

if(file_exists('my-dreams-files/'.$_GET['article'].'.html'))

Answer 5

I spent the last two hours wondering what was wrong with my if statement: file_exists($file) was returning false, however I could call include($file) with no problem.

It turns out that I didn't realize that the php include_path value I had set in the .htaccess file didn't carry over to file_exists, is_file, etc.

Thus:

<?PHP
// .htaccess php_value include_path '/home/user/public_html/';

// includes lies in /home/user/public_html/includes/

//doesn't work, file_exists returns false
if ( file_exists('includes/config.php') )
{
     include('includes/config.php');
}

//does work, file_exists returns true
if ( file_exists('/home/user/public_html/includes/config.php') )
{
    include('includes/config.php');
}
?>

Just goes to show that "shortcuts for simplicity" like setting the include_path in .htaccess can just cause more grief in the long run.

Answer 6

Just my $.02: I just had this problem and it was due to a space at the end of the file name. It's not always a path problem - although that is the first thing I check - always. I could cut and paste the file name into a shell window using the ls -l command and of course that locates the file because the command line will ignore the space where as file_exists does not. Very frustrating indeed and nearly impossible to locate were it not for StackOverflow.

HINT: When outputting debug statements enclose values with delimiters () or [] and that will show a space pretty clearly. And always remember to trim your input.