When using the file functions php has a file status cache, Though reading the documentation, Im not clear on the length of the cache (TTL)
For instance, if the same file is being checked multiple times within a single script
from http://www.php.net//manual/en/function.clearstatcache.php
Is it only ever in the length of the script ? so if a script called many times which does a file_exists does that do a stat for each time or is the cache used ? does the amount of php processes' matter ? eg one process has the result cached, but another one doesn't ?
If its not the php cache, does the OS / File system cache come in to play ? Assuming the file is not written to between script calls ?