chdir doing funny things...

[dloendorf]

I have a line of code that tries to change the current directory up one level, i.e., chdir('../'); that seems to do funny things - like just exit the function it is in. I have searched for this behaviour and found that there is a PHP bug submitted on something similar. The difference is that it was associated with a windows environment and I am on a linux environment. The PHP version is 5.2.5.

The way I checked this was using the following code:
$curdir=getcwd();
error_log('current dir = '.$curdir,0);
@chdir('../');
$newdir=getcwd();
error_log('new dir = '.$newdir,0);

The output in the error_log is:

[15-Apr-2008 07:50:30] call joomla.inc.php
[15-Apr-2008 07:50:30] enter joomla.inc.php
[15-Apr-2008 07:50:30] current dir = /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/coppermine
[15-Apr-2008 07:50:30] return from joomla.inc.php

What I expected to have in the error_log was:

call joomla.inc.php
enter joomla.inc.php
current dir = /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/coppermine
new dir = /home/xxxxxxx/public_html
exit joomla.inc.php
return from joomla.inc.php

Notice that I never get an entry in the error_log for the statement after the chdir statement. In fact what happens is the code exits the current function and returns to the calling function.

Any help would be appreciated - David

[NogDog]

How about removing the "@" from the chdir() command so that we at least can see if PHP is complaining about anything?

[dloendorf]

OK - I removed the @ (which I had tried previously) from the chdir command. This produced identical results with no error messages coming from the chdir command. I also tried to chdir to the exact path '/home/xxxxx/public_html' with the same results.

Thanks for your support - David

[Xager]

Try the following:

if(!chdir("../")){
    echo("Failed to set working directory!");
    exit;
}

[NogDog]

Is safe_mode enabled? If so, it appears chdir() may fail silently if the directory does not have the owner as the script which is executing it.

[dloendorf]

OK - I tried:

if(!chdir('../')){
  error_log('Failed to set new directory',0);
}

Same results - I never hit the statement - error_log('Failed to set new directory',0);

Thanks for the suggestion - David

[NogDog]

Just for the halibut: have you tried it without the trailing slash?

chdir('..');

[dloendorf]

Yes, I also tried leaving out the trailing slash. I might add that this is the root directory for the site, which is the one that was giving problems in the windows environment.

My question now is should I report tis as a bug to PHP Bug site?:mad:

David

[NogDog]

I can't duplicate it, so it's up to you. I ran the following under PHP 5.2.1 on Windows Vista and PHP 5.2.4 (CGI) on Debian Linux without any problem:

<?php

header('Content-Type: text/plain');
echo getcwd()."\n";
chdir('..') or die('Uh-oh!');
echo getcwd();

?>

In each case it was run from a file in a directory immediately below the root web directory.

[dloendorf]

OK - Thanks - I will try the same thing.

[dloendorf]

I tried your suggestion and that works just fine. Soooooo, something in the Joomla-Coppermine Bridge is causing chdir to act funny.

Here is hoping I can get some support from the developer of the bridge.

Thanks to all that responded and gave advice.

David