<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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  <refentry 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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