# PharFileInfo->setMetaData

(PECL phar:1.0.0-1.2.1)

PharFileInfo->setMetaData — Sets file-specific meta-data saved with a file

### Description

void PharFileInfo->setMetaData ( mixed `$metadata` )

setMetaData() should only be used to store customized data in a file that cannot be represented with existing information stored with a file. Meta-data can significantly slow down the performance of loading a phar archive if the data is large, or if there are many files containing meta-data. It is important to note that file permissions are natively supported inside a phar; it is possible to set them with the PharFileInfo->chmod() method. As with all functionality that modifies the contents of a phar, the phar.readonly INI variable must be off in order to succeed.

Some possible uses for meta-data include passing a user/group that should be set when a file is extracted from the phar to disk. Other uses could include explicitly specifying a MIME type to return. However, any useful data that describes a file, but should not be contained inside of it may be stored.

### Parameters

`metadata`

  Any PHP variable containing information to store alongside a file

### Examples

Example#1 A PharFileInfo->setMetaData() example

`<?php
// make sure it doesn't exist
@unlink('brandnewphar.phar');
try {
$p = new Phar(dirname(__FILE__) . '/brandnewphar.phar', 0, 'brandnewphar.phar');
$p['file.txt'] = 'hello';
$p['file.txt']->setMetaData(array('user' => 'bill', 'mime-type' => 'text/plain'));
var_dump($p['file.txt']->getMetaData());
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo 'Could not create/modify phar: ', $e;
}
?>`

The above example will output:

    array(2) {
      ["user"]=>
      string(4) "bill"
      ["mime-type"]=>
      string(10) "text/plain"
    }

### See Also

- PharFileInfo->getMetaData()