unexpected error - T_VARIABLE

[dkintheuk]

Hi there,

I'm getting hte following error

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in xxx on line 3

the file is this one...

<? php
$file_ref = $_REQUEST['img_ref']; 
if(file_exists($file_ref)) 
        { 
        $tipe = getimagesize($file_ref); 
        $header_ext = ($tipe[2] < 4) ? ($tipe[2] < 3) ? ($tipe[2] < 2) ? ($tipe[2] < 1) ? NULL : 'gif' : 'jpeg' : 'png' : NULL; 
        if($header_ext !== NULL) 
                { 
                header("Content-type: image/" .$header_ext); 
                readfile($file_ref); 
                } 
        }
?>

and even if i change it to this:

<? php

$fileref = '/images/pic_001.jpg';
header("Content-type: image/jpeg"); 
readfile($fileref); 

?>

i still get the same error...

can anyone advise why this might happen?

[devinemke]

an opening PHP tag is this

<?php

not this:

<? php

[dkintheuk]

OMG - what a dumb ass i am - a million times i've written it and now i get it wrong...

thanks so much for the blindingly obvious!

Good man.