(PHP 3 >= 3.0.4, PHP 4, PHP 5)
lstat -- Gives information about a file or symbolic link
Description
array 
lstat ( string filename )
     Gathers the statistics of the file or symbolic link named by
     filename.  This function is identical to the
     stat() function except that if the
     filename parameter is a symbolic link, the
     status of the symbolic link is returned, not the status of the
     file pointed to by the symbolic link.
    
     See the manual page for stat() for information on
     the structure of the array that lstat() returns.
    
Note: The results of this 
function are cached. See clearstatcache() for 
more details.
Tip: As of PHP 5.0.0 this function
can also be used with some URL wrappers.  Refer to 
Appendix M for a listing of which wrappers support 
stat() family of functionality.
     See also stat().