File system help

short_ling

Hey everyone. I've begun working with PHP recently, and have been using some online tutorials to help me along.

My problem, obviously, has to do with PHP's file system. I copied the PHP in the following piece of code directly from an online tutorial:

<html>
<head>
<title>test page 2</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php

$ourFileName = "testFile.txt";
$ourFileHandle = fopen($ourFileName, 'w') or die("can't open file");
fclose($ourFileHandle);

?>
</body>
</html>

I don't see any reason for the code not to work. However, when I open the file in my browser, it outputs "can't open file". Also, the file "testFile.txt" does not appear in the directory, like it is supposed to.

I would appreciate it if anyone could help me find the source of my problem.

Thanks a lot! 😃

stolzyboy

change this line:

$ourFileHandle = fopen($ourFileName, 'w') or die("can't open file");

to this:

$ourFileHandle = fopen($ourFileName, 'w');

This should generate a more specific error, I'm assuming there is a permissions issue.

NogDog

It's always a good idea to add some defensive coding for such things:

<?php
$ourFileName = "testFile.txt";
if(file_exists($ourFileName))
{
   if(is_writable($ourFileName))
   {
      $ourFileHandle = fopen($ourFileName, 'w');
      if($ourFileHandle)
      {
         // do stuff with writable file handle, then...
         fclose($ourFileHandle);
      }
      else
      {
         echo "<p class='error'>Unknown error while opening file '$ourFileName'</p>\n";
      }
   }
   else
   {
      echo "<p class='error'>File '$ourFileName' is not writable.</p>\n";
   }
}
else
{
   echo "<p class='error'>File '$ourFileName' does not exist or is not readable.</p>\n";
}
?>

short_ling

I tried both approaches.

Stolzyboy's code led to a blank page. NogDog's code outputted "File 'testFile.txt' does not exist or is not readable."

Does that help?

laserlight

Stolzyboy's code led to a blank page.

That hints that you have display_errors set to Off in php.ini, or have an unsuitable level for error_reporting. Develop with display_errors on and error_reporting at E_ALL so you can better read error messages instead of just getting a blank page.

short_ling

laserlight wrote:
That hints that you have display_errors set to Off in php.ini, or have an unsuitable level for error_reporting. Develop with display_errors on and error_reporting at E_ALL so you can better read error messages instead of just getting a blank page.

I checked, display_errors is already set to "on", and error_reporting is set to "E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE".

NogDog

I think I misread what you are trying to do in my original reply. How about a quick check to see if you have write permission on the current directory?

if(!is_writable(getcwd()))
{
   echo "You do not have write permission on the current directory: " . getcwd();
}

short_ling

I ran that code, and I got a blank page.

NogDog

Looks like I left a ")" out, so if you just copied-and-pasted that code into a separate script, it should have given a parse error. Anyway, I had meant that as a example of something to stick into your script to check that the directory was writable before trying to write to it. As a stand-alone script, you could do the following to ensure either an OK or ERROR message is displayed:

<?php
if(is_writable(getcwd()))
{
   echo "OK: you have write permission on " . getcwd();
}
else
{
   echo "ERROR: you do NOT have write permission on " . getcwd();
}