PHP: Why would 'filetype()' and 'is_file()' fail reading a file on a FTP server?

Question

I'm having a few problems while trying to check files on a FTP server.

I installed a FTP server (filezilla) on a test machine where i could interact with it from another webserver running on the LAN. I used PHP to walk through the directories on the FTP server over the LAN. Within my app i had calls to 'filetype()' and more recently 'is_file()' to check file types etc.

Now i've deployed the app to another place and setup a FTP share on a NAS and run my app on a separate webserver connected to the LAN and here's where the problems start. My app now fails in the 'filetype()' and 'is_file()' calls. I have set the FTP share on the NAS to read/write.

'is_file()' = Silent, no error reported.

'filetype()' = Warning: filetype() [function.filetype]: Lstat failed for ftp://192.168.0.36/PDFs/6008300/6008386/v1/6008386.pdf in C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs\app\app.php on line 326

Any thoughts?

I can work around this error by not using the above functions but that lessens the safety of this script.

EDIT:

PHP is version 5.2.4

The FTP server doesn't require any login username or password.

Answer 1

The is_file() and filetype() functions require "stat()" support from the relevant protocol wrapper.

For FTP/FTPS, this was lacking in PHP4, but is supported in PHP5.

Have you deployed this on a PHP4 based server?