[Resolved] referential integrity fs vs db

[tbach2]

My problem is an outgrowth of the old "store images (videos in this case) in the database or in the filesystem" debate.

I decided to use the filesystem in this case due to the size of the files being stored. But I have run into a problem that can best be described as a referential integrity problem. Here's what happened:

I tested the script which uploads the file and stores the pointer in the database. It worked fine-- file was moved to a folder the script created and and the pointer went in the database. Great! I'm done testing this script. So I then manually deleted the db records (multiple uploads tested) and then was going to manually delete the files. But I can't delete them because I'm not user 'nobody' (or whoever php is running as) :rolleyes:

Obviously, I'll have to write a script to delete them. That was the next script to write anyway, since these files are only intended to be available for a fixed time anyway.

You could say that I've lost referential integrity here... I've got orphan files with no database pointer to them. It's a problem that I created, but I would like to be able to be able to check for referential integrity so that I don't accidently get a whole bunch of orphan files sitting around.

Any ideas how to check for integrity?

[bastien]

Use PHPs filesystem functions to compare the videos in the folders to the list of items in the db..

1. open the folders, scan video titles and place them into an array
2. run a query to load the db items into an array
3. use PHPs in_array() to find which ones are orphaned
4. delete the orphans

You can use the unlink function to delete those that are orphaned.

[tbach2]

That makes good sense 🙂

Now I'll have to hit the manual to figure out how to do step one... I haven't worked with the filesystem commands much.

Thanks!