writing to a new flat file

adavis

I need to write to a new flat file. I keep getting a "Permission Denied" message on what I'm trying now. What I want to do is to gather some information in a form, write it to a database and also to a flat file. The reason is to keep teachers from having to enter assignments into my form and then turn around and re-type the same information in for another part of the website that I don't have any control over. They want an html file and so I'm creating it for them. Anyway the write to the database part works like a charm. But this has got me frustrated. I hate flat files 😃

I also want to put this in a different folder same level as where this php code is. My php code is is /admin/ and I want to write this file to a folder called /assignments/ same level as /admin/. Here's what I have:

$filename = "/usr/home/mysite/public_html/htdocs/assignments/".
         $courseOUT."_".$form['year1'].$fnMonth.$fnDay.".html";
chmod ($filename, 0666);
if (!$fp = fopen($filename, 'w')) {
  echo "Cannot open file: ".$filename."<hr>".$htmlIN."<br>\n";
  exit;
}
if (!fwrite($fp, $htmlIN)) {
  print "Cannot write to file: ".$filename."<br>\n";
  exit;
}
echo "Success, wrote: <hr>".$htmlIN."<hr> to file: ".$filename."<br>\n";
fclose($fp);

I get these error messages:

Warning: chmod failed: No such file or directory in
/usr/home/mysite/public_html/htdocs/admin/assignments.php
on line 661

Warning:
fopen("/usr/home/mysite/public_html/htdocs/assignments/Eng8_20021209.html", "w")
- Permission denied in
/usr/home/mysite/public_html/htdocs/admin/assignments.php on line 662
Cannot open file:
/usr/home/mysite/public_html/htdocs/assignments/Eng8_20021209.html

stolzyboy

the first thing to check, i know it seems trivial, but make sure you have read/write permissions on your files/folders you are trying to write to

adavis

I have all my database information set up in a folder outside of htdocs and read that with no problem, but of course I'm not trying to write to it.

Your code snippet made absolutely no sense to me. The /assignments/ folder has 755 permissions set on it.

stolzyboy

my code snippet? that is my signature not a code snippet, LOL

stolzyboy

well to read and write you need permissions of 766

adavis

Actually, I only need to write. I don't need to read, but I can try 766 instead. But don't see where it will make all that much difference since the first digit is the owner (me) and the world (or at least a small section of it) will be the ones to write.

In case I didn't make this clear, the file will in most cases will not exist before hand and if it does, I just want to write over it. The file name will be the class name + the start date for the assignment list (which will always be a Monday). ie ENG8_20021209.html would be for 8th grade English, for the week of December 9th-13th. I display the file out just before it crashes and it's building the file right. I just won't open it. What I read in my O'Reilly "Programming PHP" on fopen for "w" is:

Open the file for writing. If the file exists, it will be truncated to zero length; if the file doesn't already exist, it will be created.

I want the last part, "if the file doesn't exit...."

adavis

I changed folder permissions to 777 and it worked. I don't like it set like that though. I'm going to change it back to 766 and see if it works now that there's a file in there.

stolzyboy

it should work at 766, since you shouldn't need to execute the file, you need to be able to write to it and users need to be able to see(read) it, lemme know if you still need help or suggestions

adavis

I went back and tried 666, 766, and 776, but only 777 will work. I agree with you, it should work at 766 since there is no execution going on. But this is the folder we're talking about and not the file. The file would/does work with just basic 644 permissions since it's an html file that's being created. HOWEVER, when I change the folder premissions away from 777, I get that same permission denied error. I'm not a newbie to UNIX. I've been programming in perl for about 2 years now, so understand pretty much how this is supposed to work. I've just picked PHP up in the last 6 months. What I don't understand is what can or worms I will be opening up to change the folder to 777 and leave it that way. How 'bout if I do a chmod on the folder to 777, write the file, then change it back to 755 when I'm though. I've never tried to change permissions on a folder though. Would it be the same process as for a file, ie

chmod ("/usr/home/mysite/public_html/htdocs/assignments/", 0777);

or is there another command I need to use instead, or is it possible to do?

adavis

Don't ask me why, but all of the sudden it started working with 766 set. Oh well, thanks for all the help and advise,

Later...