[RESOLVED] delete lines 5 - 105 in a PHP file from within the file? is it possible?

kender

Here is the snip of code

	$file = file("install.php") or exit('could not read file');
	for ($i=5; $i <= 105; $i++) {
		unset($file[$i]);
	}

I tried printing the lines in question, so I know it is reading them properly, but it is not deleting them

Basically I want to remove a section of code from the page once done as after the first run it is no longer needed

dalecosp

I suppose it might be, permissions notwithstanding. You could also try setting a flag somewhere that indicates the script has run once, and wrap lines 5-105 in a conditional that only executes if that condition hasn't been met.

kender

Well, it creates a "firstrun.txt" file, if the file exists it should ignore that section of code, if the file doesn't exist it will then run the code and create the file..

I am paranoid about some server issue that would cause it to not see the "firstrun.txt" and try to recreate it or overwrite it

Derokorian

After that unset loop, use implode and file_put_contents?

Edit: Especially since I don't see anywhere that you write back to the file. file() just pulls the contents into an array (where each line is an entry), its not a live version of the file so unsetting the file array doesn't affect the file itself.

kender

resolved with

	$file = file("install.php") or exit('could not read file');
	for ($i=5; $i <= 107; $i++) {
		unset($file[$i]);
	}
	$file = implode("", $file); 
	$handle = fopen("install.php", 'w') or exit('could not read file'); 
	$bytes = fwrite($handle, $file) or exit('could not write to file');

thanks for the implode/write

bradgrafelman

You could also be fun with it and do it all in two lines:

$data = file( 'install.php' );
file_put_contents( 'install.php', array_merge( array_slice( $data, 0, 4 ), array_slice( $data, 105 ) ) );

kender

Thanks for the additional way to do it, I think I will keep it the original way just because it is easier to comment (for me at least)