checking if file exists on other server w/o running it

[papayiya]

Hi,

my problem is that I want to check if a file say http://www.somedomain.com/somedir/file.php exists, but without running it.

I tried opening and closing the file immediatly fclose(fopen(..)) but that runs the file.

Is there any way to check if the file exists with out running it?

Thanks,
George

[jnuneznyc]

Maybe using CURL and FTP to pull the file? Or if you have access to the server on the other side you can write a one-liner the checks if fileexist and then just return 0/1

[papayiya]

hi,

thanks for the reply,

this is my exact problem,

I will be invoking an exec() command on an outside url through lynx. This exec command will be executed in the background (ie. exec(lynx http://www..... &))

but before i run the http://www.. i want to know if the file exists..

the other option is to somehow get the results from the exec after the process is done from the background..

Anyone have any ideas?
any idea is welcome..

Thanks,
George

[anm]

EDIT: Ahhhh. . .I see. . .it's on a different server.

I have no idea how you could do that without some sort of FTP or something. . .

Why do you not want to run it?