adding to files

Anon

I'm trying to add something to the beginning of a file. I'm making something where I can update my site remotely, with a page like "update.html" which would submit something to "update.php", which would edit the index file, adding the new info. I can do it correctly if I add my new info to the end of the file...however, I can't add to the beginning without erasing everything that was already in the file, leaving only the very newest update. I'm quite sure it has to do with how i open it, i've been reading about fopen().

i've tried this...
$file = fopen("news.txt", "aw");
I thought maybe that would open it for appending, then move the position to the beginning of the document. It still adds to the end of the document, however, the same as doing just "a". Any help would be appreciated...if not, I can probably tinker with it until I get it.

toma42

$olddata = file('news.txt');
unlink('news.txt');
error_log('New Message At Top', 3, 'news.txt');
foreach ($olddata as $line) {
error_log(trim($line), 3, 'news.txt');
}

That should do it. You'll have to tweek the paths, I'm sure.

Anon

Thank you sir. Works perfectly. Now, I have to read a little so I actually understand it ;p
I was trying it with fopen and fputs and what not. This is totally different. I need a book ;p

toma42

// Read the original file into an array
$olddata = file('news.txt');

// Delete the original file
unlink('news.txt');

// Using error_log(), write the new message to the file we just deleted. Error_log will create the file if it doesn't exist then add the message to the end of the file. Error_log takes care of all file opens and closes.
// error_log(x, 3, y): 3 = use y as write-to file

error_log('New Message At Top', 3, 'news.txt');

// Loop through the array we got from the first file() call and put each line back into the newly-recreated news.txt

foreach ($olddata as $line) {
error_log(trim($line), 3, 'news.txt');
}