05-25-2010
It depends on how you consider a file active.
If a file is seldom changed, but often read, mtime and ctime would show the file as old, even if it's not.
If a file is only temporary (eg. spooled from a DB), and only used once, mtime would be a good bet.
I can't think of a good example for ctime, as it's only changed when the inode associated with the file changes, eg. changes in file size or name.
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LEARN ABOUT PHP
filectime
FILECTIME(3) 1 FILECTIME(3)
filectime - Gets inode change time of file
SYNOPSIS
int filectime (string $filename)
DESCRIPTION
Gets the inode change time of a file.
PARAMETERS
o $filename
- Path to the file.
RETURN VALUES
Returns the time the file was last changed, or FALSE on failure. The time is returned as a Unix timestamp.
EXAMPLES
Example #1
A filectime(3) example
<?php
// outputs e.g. somefile.txt was last changed: December 29 2002 22:16:23.
$filename = 'somefile.txt';
if (file_exists($filename)) {
echo "$filename was last changed: " . date("F d Y H:i:s.", filectime($filename));
}
?>
ERRORS
/EXCEPTIONS
Upon failure, an E_WARNING is emitted.
NOTES
Note
Note: In most Unix filesystems, a file is considered changed when its inode data is changed; that is, when the permissions, owner,
group, or other metadata from the inode is updated. See also filemtime(3) (which is what you want to use when you want to create
"Last Modified" footers on web pages) and fileatime(3).
Note
Note also that in some Unix texts the ctime of a file is referred to as being the creation time of the file. This is wrong. There
is no creation time for Unix files in most Unix filesystems.
Note
Note that time resolution may differ from one file system to another.
Note
The results of this function are cached. See clearstatcache(3) for more details.
Tip
As of PHP 5.0.0, this function can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to "Supported Protocols and Wrappers" to determine
which wrappers support stat(3) family of functionality.
SEE ALSO
filemtime(3).
PHP Documentation Group FILECTIME(3)