@file

[thebay]

$picture_list=@file("{$picpath}list.php");

what is @file?

[mknudsen]

You can read about file() here..

The "@" sign tells php to supress any errors from the file function.

[ziong]

"@" is an operator which will ignore all output from the function.
e.g.
$fp = fopen("./temp.txt", "r");

if "./temp.txt" is not exists, u will get and warning message.

but,
$fp = @fopen("./temp.txt", "r");

no warning will give out from fopen();