your example script:

<?php
                        $handle=opendir('.');
                        echo "Directory handle: $handle\n";
                        echo "Files:\n";
                        while ($file = readdir($handle)) {
                            echo "$file\n";
                        }
                        closedir($handle); 
?>

the directory listing:
drwxr-xr-x   4 userr  users        1024 Jan 27 04:57 ./
drwxr-xr-x   3 userr  users        1024 Jan 17 12:04 ../
drwxr-xr-x   2 userr  users        1024 Jan 27 04:55 Bilder/
-rw-r--r--   1 userr  users       29184 Jun 24  1999 call-by-call.xls
-rw-r--r--   1 userr  users         185 Dec 15 20:29 index.alt
drwxrwxrwx   2 userr  users        1024 Jan 27 04:55 uploads/

what I get:
.
..
uploads
call-by-call.xls