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<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xml:id="function.fileatime">
 <refnamediv>
  <refname>fileatime</refname>
  <refpurpose>Gets last access time of file</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>
 <refsect1>
  <title>Description</title>
  <methodsynopsis>
   <type>int</type><methodname>fileatime</methodname>
   <methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>filename</parameter></methodparam>
  </methodsynopsis>
  <simpara>
   Returns the time the file was last accessed, or &false; in case of
   an error. The time is returned as a Unix timestamp.
  </simpara>
  <simpara>
   Note: The atime of a file is supposed to change whenever
   the data blocks of a file are being read. This can be
   costly performance-wise when an application regularly
   accesses a very large number of files or directories. Some
   Unix filesystems can be mounted with atime updates disabled
   to increase the performance of such applications; USENET
   news spools are a common example. On such filesystems
   this function will be useless.
  </simpara>

  &note.clearstatcache;

  &tip.fopen-wrapper.stat;

  <para>
   <example>
    <title><function>fileatime</function> example</title>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php

// outputs e.g.  somefile.txt was last accessed: December 29 2002 22:16:23.

$filename = 'somefile.txt';
if (file_exists($filename)) {
    echo "$filename was last accessed: " . date("F d Y H:i:s.", fileatime($filename));
}

?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </example>
  </para>
  <simpara>
   See also <function>filemtime</function>,
   <function>fileinode</function>, and
   <function>date</function>.
  </simpara>
 </refsect1>
</refentry>

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