SplFileInfo::getCTime

(PHP 5 >= 5.1.2, PHP 7, PHP 8)

SplFileInfo::getCTime — Gets the inode change time

Description

public SplFileInfo::getCTime(): int |false

Returns the inode change time for the file. The time returned is a Unix timestamp.

Parameters

This function has no parameters.

Return Values

The last change time, in a Unix timestamp on success, or false on failure.

Errors/Exceptions

Throws RuntimeException on error.

Examples

Example #1 SplFileInfo::getCTime() example

<?php
$info = new SplFileInfo('example.jpg');
echo 'Last changed at ' . date('g:i a', $info->getCTime());
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

Last changed at 1:49 pm

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User Contributed Notes 1 note

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michael at smith-li dot com ¶

11 years ago

A file's ctime is it's inode change time. The inode changes when file metadata changes (for example when file permissions change). The inode also changes whenever the file's contents change, but since the inode changes for other reasons, it's more accurate to use mtime to get the age of the contents of a file. See SPLFileInfo::getMTime

Also, please note ctime is not creation time. (Most UNIX-like filesystems do not record a file's creation time.)