writting to file in php

blitzX · 01-16-2005, 01:06 PM

Hi, I've been working on this on website for a bit, but theres a problem when I attempt to open a file to append info on it(in PHP). Here's the pseudo code, where i believe the problem is:

Code:

if (!($logging = fopen('./cgi-bin/current.txt', 'a')))
{
         $state = 0;
         $error = '2Unable to open the input file.';
}

yet, if I use this for opening just to read and it works fine:

Code:

if (!($current = fopen('./cgi-bin/users.txt', 'r')))
{
        $state = 0;
        $error = '1Unable to open the input file.';
}

if anyone sees something that I'm missing or knows of any problem like this please reply

-- Ayron

Hko · 01-16-2005, 01:29 PM

Assuming you run PHP as an apache-module, it will try to open the file as the system-user as used by apache (e.g. user "www" or "www-data", depending on your distribution). This system-user probably does not have write access to the file.

You can find out which system-user apache uses as by creating a file "whoami.php", and access it with a browser. Then make sure the system-user displayed has write-access to your file.

PHP Code:



<?php 
    echo "Apache system user: <b>"; 
    system('whoami'); 
    echo "</b><br />"; 
    echo "Apache user is member of these groups: <b>"; 
    system('groups'); 
    echo "</b>"; 
?>

blitzX · 01-16-2005, 02:57 PM

Thanks, I had completely forgotten about file permissions.