[RESOLVED] Can't get file upload to work

oldguy

Edited Wed 11/29
Web host tech support created /home/mbiwebor/uplod and added virtual host conf upload_tmp_dir to point to it

Edited Wed 11/29:
Big thanks to bpat1434 who tried my code on his system (comment #15). It works. So obviously something is setup wrong on my (shared host) server. But what?

Edited Thu 11/20 01:14 PST
tech support changed owner of /home/mbiwebor/uplod to 32050/mbiwebor
changed permissions of /home/mbiwebor/dev/2007/photos to 777
partial success meaning the code works in a script by itself but not when combined into the rest of my script (see comment #17)

Edited Thu 11/20 13:00 PST
Mystery solved (comment #22). Marked thread resolved.

Original Problem: is_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name']) returns false. My test file is a 2.5k gif.

Server info (shared host):

Server info (shared host):
Apache                          nobody(99)/99
/home/mbiwebor/public_html      32050/99          750
/home/mbiwebor/dev/2007/photos  32050/mbiwebor    755

DOCUMENT_ROOT = /home/mbiwebor/public_html/dev

phpinfo() executed from the subdomain:

file_uploads           on
upload_max_filesize    16M
post_max_size          8M
upload_tmp_dir         no value
open_basedir           /home/mbiwebor/:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php:/tmp

Form code (.htaccess is set so server will parse .html as php)

<form enctype='multipart/form-data' action='nomedit.html' method='post'>
   <input type='hidden' name='select' value='{$_REQUEST['select']}' />
   <input type='hidden' name='nominee_id' value='{$_REQUEST['nominee_id']}' />
   <input type='hidden' name='MAX_FILE_SIZE' value='30000' />
   <span class='stress small'>Upload photo file</span> 
   <input class='small' name='userfile' type='file' /> 
   <input class='small' name='upload' type='submit' value='Upload' />
</form>

Processing code

function processUpload() {
   global $err_msg;
   if (is_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'])) {
       $destination = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/2007/photos/' . basename($_FILES['userfile']['name']);
      if (!move_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'], $destination)) {
         $err_msg = 'File move to photos directory was not successfull';
         return;
      }
   } else {
      $err_msg = "File was not uploaded successfully - error code: {$_FILES['userfile']['error']}<br />";
      return;
   }
}

Note that there is more to the processing code that I will add after the upload is working.

bpat1434

Umm.... on your server is .html parsed as PHP? If not, you need to modify the action of the form to point to the correct PHP page. That's the first issue I'm seeing.

You should really check to see if the uploaded file is uploaded by using the tmp_name. is_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'])

You might want to add an else statement to catch for when everything goes okay (right now, you'd get a blank page).

oldguy

bpat1434 wrote:
Umm.... on your server is .html parsed as PHP?

Yes it is.

Changed the code to: if (is_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name'])) {

The result is the same: error "A"

As for the other stuff, first job is to get upload working then I add the extras like file validation. 🙂

bpat1434

I don't know what to tell you. In theory, it should work. Is there any way that the "A" could be something from a different message.

Other than that, I have no idea.

oldguy

Is there any way that the "A" could be something from a different message.

No, no way. $err_msg is set to null before calling the function. And no other error checks are done after exiting the function.

Thanks for trying. Maybe someone else will wander by offer up some suggestions. In the meantime I'm going to put my host's tech support to work on the problem now that I know there is not an obvious error on my part.

oldguy

Update:

Editied my original post to make it clearer. Corrected the code error that bpat caught.

My web host tech support dept has given up and tossed it back in my lap saying it is a script problem.

If it is a script problem, I sure as hell can't find it.

eriksmoen

/home/mbiwebor/uplod 99/99 755

is 755 the permission level of the directory? that's only read/execute... that will cause your file not to work...

also, your DOCUMENT_ROOT is most likely pointing to /home/mbiwebor/public_html and not your uplod directory... and unless you have uplod setup as a virtual directory, web users won't be able to access that directory...

Installer

Try this:

$destination = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/2007/photos' . '/' . basename($_FILES['userfile']['name']);

Or look in your 2007 directory and see if the files are there.

oldguy

eriksmoen,

Quote:
/home/mbiwebor/uplod 99/99 755
is 755 the permission level of the directory? that's only read/execute... that will cause your file not to work...

That's what I thought. So I tested it:

$upload_dir = '/home/mbiwebor/uplod';
if(is_dir($upload_dir)){
   if(is_writable($upload_dir)){
      echo "Directory $upload_dir exists and is writable by this script.<br />";
   }else{
      echo "Directory $upload_dir exists but is not writable by this script.<br />";
   }
}else{
   echo "Directory $upload_dir does not exist.<br />";
}

The result was "Directory /home/mbiwebor/uplod exists and is writable by this script." I don't know why it is writable but it seems to be....maybe?

also, your DOCUMENT_ROOT is most likely pointing to /home/mbiwebor/public_html and not your uplod directory... and unless you have uplod setup as a virtual directory, web users won't be able to access that directory...

I'm running the script from a subdomain "dev." so document root points to "/home/mbiwebor/public_html/dev". You're right that it is not pointing to the uplod directory. $destination is the path to the file I'm moving the uploaded file to. And that directory is "/home/mbiwebor/public_html/dev/2007/photos".

Does the above make sense?

oldguy

Installer,

[FONT=Courier New]if(is_uploaded_file($_FILES['userfile']['tmp_name']))[/FONT] is returning false so that code is never executed. I've not had a problem previously when omitting the trailing slash. But when I get the file uploaded if it does not get moved successfully I'll try your suggestion.

Installer

Yeah, somehow I missed that ("returns false") in your first post. But, frankly, I don't see how it would have worked before. basename() never includes the directory separator in its return.

Have you tried "print_r($_FILES['userfile'])"? Are you sure the 30 KB size limit is big enough?

oldguy

Installer wrote:
Yeah, somehow I missed that ("returns false") in your first post. But, frankly, I don't see how it would have worked before. basename() never includes the directory separator in its return.

You are right. When I wrote that I was thinking of something else. I'll add the trailing slash. Thanks.

print_r($_FILES['userfile']) returns "Array"

I did individual prints (example print $FILES['userfile']['tmp_name']) and they all returned "A". Looks to me that $FILES['userfile'] is empty.

Is 30k big enough? Well, my test file is only a 2.5k gif.

ClarkF1

Try var_dump($_FILES);

That should print out the entire contents of the $_FILES array

oldguy

Clark,

var_dump($_FILES) returns [FONT=Courier New]array(1) { ["userfile"]=> string(5) "Array" }[/FONT] which means what?...an empty array?

bpat1434

Sounds like there's something in the PHP setup that's holding you back. I've just tried your code on my machine here and it works perfectly fine.

Try this really quick:

foreach($_FILES['userfile'] AS $key=>$val) {
  echo 'Key: ' . $key . '  ==> ' . $val . '<br />';
}

It seems as though for whatever reason, the upload is just being mis-casted. Not sure how, or why. But it's a shot in the dark...

oldguy

bpat,

foreach($_FILES['userfile'] returns "Invalid argument supplied for foreach()"

foreach($_FILES returns "Key: userfile ==> Array"

I've just tried your code on my machine here and it works perfectly fine.

Thanks for doing that. Now I know I'm not either blind of delusional. 🙂

The question now is what the hell is wrong on my server? I don't see how but could the fact the script is running from a subdomain have any bearing? Guess my next step is to copy the form and processing code into a new script and run it on the parent domain.

oldguy

Limited success. If I strip out all my application logic and leave only the form code and process upload code (see attached file), it works. The file is uploaded and moved to the final directory. To get to this point the following changes were made.

php upload_tmp_dir had no value. So web host tech support had to create a new directory (/home/mbiwebor/uplod). And they had to edit the virtual host conf file to add an entry for the php upload_tmp_dir.

Somewhere along the line I also fixed a couple of bugs in my script that were found by bpat and Installer.

Later I had to have them change the owner/group to 32050/mbiwebor because they had created the directory as 99/99.

Partial success. File was uploaded but not moved.

Changed /home/mbiwebor/dev/2007/photos (the final home of the file) to 777.

Success. File was uploaded and moved. Use ftp client to check the directory. The file was there.

(am a little curious as to why it will upload to dir upload with 755 permissions but not move to photos dir unless permissions are 777)

Now I have to debug my "real script" because it still doesn't work. Because even though the form code and the process upload code is exactly the same as in my standalone test script, for some reason it doesn't work when combined with the code in my "real script". If anybody has nothing better to do 😃 let me know and I'll send a copy of the script to you (only 270 lines).

My thanks to y'all. I'm deeply appreciative of your help.

bpat1434

(am a little curious as to why it will upload to dir upload with 755 permissions but not move to photos dir unless permissions are 777)

Depends on who the owner of the folder(s) are. Try and follow this:

"r" = Read rights, "w" = Write rights, "x" = Execute rights

1.) 777 is owner: rwx, group: rwx, global: rwx
2.) 755 is owner: rwx, group: r-x, global: r-x

So if Apache was the owner of the temp directory, it only needs to be 755. If you're the owner of the photos directory, and you're NOT using FTP functions to move files there (i.e. you're using PHP (which is Apache's user ID) to move the files) then you need to allow others to write to it (777 permissions).

I hope that makes some type of sense to you.

foreach($_FILES['userfile'] returns "Invalid argument supplied for foreach()"

Well, that confirms exactly what I thought: your upload is working. So somewhere between the form and PHP processing, something is going wrong.

So in that case, try this:

<?php

// Get the type of the variable:
echo gettype($_FILES['userfile']);

// If it's a string, let's try and set it back to an array, see what happens:
if(gettype($_FILES['userfile']) == "string")
    settype($_FILES['userfile'], "array");

// Now let's see some results of our type-casting...
print_r($_FILES['userfile']);

[EDIT]
For the permissions thing, think of it this way:

Right | Value
Read | 4
Write | 2
Execute | 1

So, if you add them together (for rwx permissions) you get 7 😉 Now, the Owner is $perm100, and the group is $perm10, and the global community is $perm. So:
Owner: r-x || 4+1 = 5 100 = 500
Group: r-- || 4 = 4 10 = 40
Global: r-- || 4 = 4 = 4
Permission Value: 500+40+1 = 541

Owner: rwx || 4+2+1 = 7 100 = 700
Group: -wx || 2+1 = 3 10 = 30
Global: r-x || 4 + 1 = 5 = 5
Permission Value: 700+30+5 = 735

Hopefully now you can see how they arrive at the octal values they do, and hopefully that will help you understand a little bit more. You can read more here. It's pretty in-depth, but goes over nothing I haven't already told you. Although it most likely is written better than I wrote above.

[EDIT]
Reversed my numbers... 😊 Thanks Clark for pointing it out.

oldguy

So if Apache was the owner of the temp directory, it only needs to be 755...

32050/mbiwebor are the owner/group of both directories. That's what makes it seem strange to me. I understand permissions, octal and all that jazz (been working with computers since 1964--just relatively new to PHP).

I wrapped your code in pre tags and inserted it into my script. The results are:

string

Array
(
    [0] => Array
)

ClarkF1

bpat1434 wrote:
[EDIT]
1.) 777 is owner: rwx, group: rwx, global: rwx
2.) 755 is owner: rwx, group: r-x, global: r-x

....

For the permissions thing, think of it this way:

Right | Value
Read | 1
Write | 2
Execute | 4

ermmmmm.......that contradicts itself

it should be

Right | Value
Read | 4
Write | 2
Execute | 1

rw = 6 rwx = 7 r-x = 5

The last bit of that post should be

Now, the Owner is $perm100, and the group is $perm10, and the global community is $perm. So:
Owner: r-x || 4+1 = 5 100 = 500
Group: r-- || 4 = 4 10 = 40
Global: r-- || 4 = 4 = 4
Permission Value: 500+10+1 = 544

Owner: rwx || 4+2+1 = 7 100 = 700
Group: -wx || 2+1 = 3 10 = 30
Global: r-x || 4 + 1 = 5 = 5
Permission Value: 700+30+5 = 735

File Permissions

Permissions are set according to numbers. Read is 4. Write is 2. Execute is 1. The sums of these numbers give combinations of these permissions:
* 0 = no permissions whatsoever; this person cannot read, write, or execute the file
* 1 = execute only
* 2 = write only
* 3 = write and execute (1+2)
* 4 = read only
* 5 = read and execute (4+1)
* 6 = read and write (4+2)
* 7 = read and write and execute (4+2+1) 
Permissions are given using these digits in a sequence of three: one for owner, one for group, one for world.