If remote file exists or timeout....

Is it possible to timeout an operation and move on, or detect if a file on another server is reachable, and if not after a period of time, then show an error message such as "news unavailable"?

I syndicate GeekNews and /. headlines on my site, and sometimes GN goes down. If it does, the headline grabber script cant pull the backend.txt file from their server, and it won't let my page load. If I notice it, I have to go in there and remove the script until GN is back up.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.remote-files.php

use a handy dandy if(!) command, like they do in their example.

Aha! I know how to do it with local files, but I didn't know the same principles would hold true with remote files. Thanks.

:( I just get errors. Something about a bad file descriptor. I tried several different attempts. I hate trying to implement code into scripts someone else has written (old news grabbing script I found a long time ago).

Whats the script look like?

I took out my failed attempts, so I could upload the original file.

[code]<?php

$backend = "http://www.geeknews.net/ultramode.txt";

$items = 0;
$time = split(" ", microtime());

srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$cache_time_rnd = 300 - rand(0, 600);

if ( (!(file_exists($cache_file))) || ((filectime($cache_file) + $cache_time - $time[1]) + $cache_time_rnd < 0) || (!(filesize($cache_file))) ) {


$fpread = fopen($backend, 'r');
if(!$fpread) {
// echo "$errstr ($errno)<br>\n";
// exit;
} else {

$fpwrite = fopen($cache_file, 'w');
if(!$fpwrite) {
// echo "$errstr ($errno)<br>\n";
// exit;
} else {

while(! feof($fpread) ) {

$buffer = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));

if ($buffer == "%%") {

$title = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$link = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$date = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$time = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$submit_handle = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));
$submit_email = ltrim(Chop(fgets($fpread, 256)));

$k = substr($title, 0, 60) . "...";


if (($title != "") && ($items < $max_items)) {

fputs($fpwrite, "$link_prefix<A HREF=\"http://www.geeknews.net$link\" TARGET=\"$target\">$k</A>$link_postfix");
$items++;
}
}
}

}
fclose($fpread);
}
fclose($fpwrite);
}
if (file_exists($cache_file)) {
include($cache_file);
}
?>[/code]