PHP Manual: fileperms

Description

int fileperms ( string filename )

Returns the permissions on the file, or FALSE in case of an error.

Note: The results of this function are cached. See clearstatcache() for more details.

Tip: As of PHP 5.0.0 this function can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to Appendix M for a listing of which wrappers support stat() family of functionality.

Example 1. Display permissions as an octal value

<?php
echo substr(sprintf('%o', fileperms('/tmp')), -4);
echo substr(sprintf('%o', fileperms('/etc/passwd')), -4);
?>

This would produce the output:

1777
0644

Example 2. Display full permissions

<?php
$perms = fileperms('/etc/passwd');

if (($perms & 0xC000) == 0xC000) {
    // Socket
    $info = 's';
} elseif (($perms & 0xA000) == 0xA000) {
    // Symbolic Link
    $info = 'l';
} elseif (($perms & 0x8000) == 0x8000) {
    // Regular
    $info = '-';
} elseif (($perms & 0x6000) == 0x6000) {
    // Block special
    $info = 'b';
} elseif (($perms & 0x4000) == 0x4000) {
    // Directory
    $info = 'd';
} elseif (($perms & 0x2000) == 0x2000) {
    // Character special
    $info = 'c';
} elseif (($perms & 0x1000) == 0x1000) {
    // FIFO pipe
    $info = 'p';
} else {
    // Unknown
    $info = 'u';
}

// Owner
$info .= (($perms & 0x0100) ? 'r' : '-');
$info .= (($perms & 0x0080) ? 'w' : '-');
$info .= (($perms & 0x0040) ?
            (($perms & 0x0800) ? 's' : 'x' ) :
            (($perms & 0x0800) ? 'S' : '-'));

// Group
$info .= (($perms & 0x0020) ? 'r' : '-');
$info .= (($perms & 0x0010) ? 'w' : '-');
$info .= (($perms & 0x0008) ?
            (($perms & 0x0400) ? 's' : 'x' ) :
            (($perms & 0x0400) ? 'S' : '-'));

// World
$info .= (($perms & 0x0004) ? 'r' : '-');
$info .= (($perms & 0x0002) ? 'w' : '-');
$info .= (($perms & 0x0001) ?
            (($perms & 0x0200) ? 't' : 'x' ) :
            (($perms & 0x0200) ? 'T' : '-'));

echo $info;
?>

This would produce the output:

-rw-r--r--

See also is_readable(), and stat()