reading a text file (revisited)

klyxmaster

ok this is very basic - and I am totally missing it.

for simplicity, i will make this short.. if it requires more just ask.

system: localhost
engine: wamp
OS: vista

trying to edit a text file called accounts.dat

this passes!!

if( !file_exists($fname) ) die("no file $fname");

this FAILS regardless of the "+"

$accounts = fopen($fname,'r+');
		if( !$accounts ) die("Cannot open accounts file: functions.loadAccts()
				     <br>path: $fname");

I also tried the php (is_readable) and that fails as well

my dilemma is that it sees the file, but cannot do anything with it.

checked the file - its not locked or in use by anything (attribute is ARCHIVE)

klyxmaster

forgot to mention too that the login leading up to the admin section works fine, its off the same accounts.dat file. so thats a puzzle too

Undrium

Try to enable display_errors and set error_reporting to E_ALL to get more information, might show some more clues.

klyxmaster

will do... ty!

bradgrafelman

PHP knows the file exists, so that must mean that the PHP process at least has permissions to peek into the containing directory (and do things e.g. enumerate the files in that directory).

However, if [man]is_readable/man is returning boolean FALSE for the exact same filepath (you didn't introduce a typo somewhere, did you?), then that points to a permissions problem with the file itself.

Did you check the file permissions (chmod on 'nix, security ACL if you're on Windows) to make sure that the credentials that PHP is executed under has sufficient permissions to read the file in question?

klyxmaster

sorry for the delay :-)

while I was messing with that i was dumping windows on my main box for linux. and wouldn't ya know. same issue. Instead of permissions (which btw they are sett at 777 for everything in that folder), i am starting to think this is a path issue. I know if i hit that folder/file directly it works fine, but in a function where several scripts access the file it needs to be relative.

example i found out that[FONT="Courier New"] http://localhost/somefolder/database/accounts.dat[/FONT] (textfile)
will error out
but if i directly access it from the script PRIOR to executing the function say findUser() (eg), "[FONT="Courier New"]../database/accounts.dat[/FONT]" works fine.

however that seems like a lot of messy code if each script as to do it that way before runing the function. right?

so in the config.php file, i just use define()'s but then that has to be absolute, and thats where the isssue is.

so in short:
1. absolute (via define) errors out
2. accessing it relative seems to be ok, but then have to have each script that needs to access the file to point to it manually.

here are some sample paths maybe I have it all wrong but i REALLY think its a path thing (I heard rummors that php preferrs relative paths)

    define('PROJECT_PATH'               ,'/projectx/app_demo/');

define ('HOME_URL'                  ,'http://localhost'.PROJECT_PATH);

//define ('HOME_URL'                  ,'http://localhost/projectx/app_demo/');

define ('ACCT_FILE'                 ,'database/accounts.idx');

now HOME_URL has been changed a ton of times to several different things - all fail

    define ('HOME_URL'                 '$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']');

sorta works.
but cant find anything consistant

klyxmaster

its a permission issue.
will have to (run-time) change permissions once the file is created for access. Not sure how this is done in windows, but in nix, i just changed the permission an dnow the file works

any suggestions for windows permission (as the file was marked as archive) I do not know.

bradgrafelman

klyxmaster;10979146 wrote:
Instead of permissions (which btw they are sett at 777 for everything in that folder), i am starting to think this is a path issue.

No reason to guess; try opening the file for writing and see what the PHP error message (if any) says.

klyxmaster;10979146 wrote:
I know if i hit that folder/file directly it works fine, but in a function where several scripts access the file it needs to be relative.

Completely false - the file path needs to be "correct," not relative or absolute.

klyxmaster;10979146 wrote:
example i found out that[FONT="Courier New"] http://localhost/somefolder/database/accounts.dat[/FONT] (textfile)
will error out
but if i directly access it from the script PRIOR to executing the function say findUser() (eg), "[FONT="Courier New"]../database/accounts.dat[/FONT]" works fine.

Don't know what you're trying to say here, since you're comparing apples to oranges (URL vs. file path).

klyxmaster;10979146 wrote:
so in the config.php file, i just use define()'s but then that has to be absolute

Not necessarily, no.

klyxmaster;10979146 wrote:
so in short:
1. absolute (via define) errors out
2. accessing it relative seems to be ok, but then have to have each script that needs to access the file to point to it manually.

Again, relative paths are no better or worse than absolute paths. A correct path, however, is better than an incorrect one.

klyxmaster;10979146 wrote:
I heard rummors that php preferrs relative paths

Well let's dispense with that "rumor" right now: PHP is a computer application, not a person with feelings and preferences. If you give PHP a correct file path, things will work fine. If you give it an incorrect path, things won't work fine. This applies to both absolute and relative paths.

klyxmaster;10979146 wrote:
    define ('HOME_URL'                 '$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']');
sorta works.

Not sure what you mean by "sorta works," since that code snippet will always fail due to a parse error.

klyxmaster;10979148 wrote:
will have to (run-time) change permissions once the file is created for access.

Er.. why is that?

klyxmaster;10979148 wrote:
any suggestions for windows permission (as the file was marked as archive) I do not know.

My suggestion would be to follow the advice I already gave above. Also, the "archive" flag has nothing to do with permissions at all, so I'm not sure why that's even relevant.