Note, contrary to the above information, stat cache entries are cleared when certain PHP functions are run. For instance, if you use unlink() to remove a file, the stat cache information is automatically purged for that particular file:
<?php
var_dump(file_exists('dummy')); // false, dummy doesn't exist
touch('dummy'); // create dummy
var_dump(file_exists('dummy')); // true, dummy exists
unlink('dummy'); // remove dummy
var_dump(file_exists('dummy')); // false, dummy no longer exists
?>