Why do I get 31 Dec 1969 as my last modified filename using filemtime in php?

datetime, function, php

Solution

This probably means your file was not found, either :

- because it doesn't exist

- or because it's not in the currect directory

- or because you didn't quote its name -- you didn't ^^

1st january 1970 is the date of time "zero" ; and `filemtime` returns `false` when there is a problem...

So, 31 Dec 1969 is the date/time of zero... According to your locale, I suppose ; I myself, with this code :

$filemtime = filemtime(filename.txt);
$formated = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $filemtime);
var_dump($filemtime, $formated);

get this output :

boolean false
string '1970-01-01 01:00:00' (length=19)

false because the file doesnt' exist, and `1970-01-01` at `01:00` because of my locale (I'm in France, at UTC+1 hour)

And note I also get a couple of notices and warnings :

- `Notice: Use of undefined constant filename - assumed 'filename'`

- `Notice: Use of undefined constant txt - assumed 'txt'`

- `Warning: filemtime() [function.filemtime]: stat failed for filenametxt`

Do you have any of those ? If no : are `error_reporting` and/or `display_errors` enabled ?

Problem

Original source