fopen doesn't write into the file?

Question

error_reporting(E_ALL); 
ini_set('display_errors','1'); 
if (file_exists('/../_config.php')) { 
    $f = fopen('/../_config.php', 'w') or die($php_errormsg);
    fwrite($f, '<?php');
    fclose($f);
}
else {
    echo 'file doesnt exist';
}

Returns: Nothing

I checked the _config.php file, and it's empty. It was supposed to contain <?php.

Absolutely no errors & the code doesn't die at all.

Is it a permission related problem? I am on Windows 7.

AFAIK `/../_config.php` _cannot_ exist (one level _above_ the root dir?) — Wrikken, Oct 15 '13 at 21:14
It does exist, I just tested by adding some text to the path, and it echoed 'file doesnt exist'. — Jony Kale, Oct 15 '13 at 21:15
Your file path will certainly give trouble. `/../_config.php` says "start at the root, go up one level and look for `_config.php`". — , Oct 15 '13 at 21:15
Hm, well... weird Windows behavior then. Don't have it here, can't test it here ;) — Wrikken, Oct 15 '13 at 21:16
What does `var_dump( file_exists('/../_config.php') );` output? — Amal Murali, Oct 15 '13 at 21:18
@Jony No idea. I don't know how to get to a folder one level _above_ the root. Maybe your code has opened a tear in the space-time continuum. — , Oct 15 '13 at 21:18
@JonyKale: What OS do you have? And are you using MAMP, LAMP, or anything of that sort? — Amal Murali, Oct 15 '13 at 21:19
@MikeW What it does is, currently I am at /root/install/ - it goes 1 folder to the back so its /root/ and then accesses /root/_config.php. everything is correct — Jony Kale, Oct 15 '13 at 21:19
`/` *is* the root directory. See http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/the-root-directory.html — Amal Murali, Oct 15 '13 at 21:21
You might be interested to read about: [How to get useful error messages in PHP?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/845021/367456) — hakre, Oct 15 '13 at 21:27
http://php.net/file_exists <- read this. also you are most likely just checking if the root directory exists, which is somewhat a funny question to ask :) - see as well: http://php.net/realpath — hakre, Oct 15 '13 at 21:29

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 15 '13 at 21:32

1

use proper path to file:

error_reporting(E_ALL); 
ini_set('display_errors','1'); 

$configFile = __DIR__ . '/../config.php';

echo $configFile, "\n";

if (file_exists($configFile)) { 
    $f = fopen($configFile, 'w') or die('cannot open file');
    fwrite($f, '<?php');
    fclose($f);
}
else {
    echo 'file doesnt exist', "\n";
}

Instead of __DIR__ you can use dirname(__FILE__) but this is only necessary in outdated (dead) PHP versions.

edited Oct 15 '13 at 21:32

hakre

193,403
52
435
836

answered Oct 15 '13 at 21:18

Iłya Bursov

23,342
4
33
57

so, `echo $configFile;` to see what file is being checked, maybe add or remove `/../` – Iłya Bursov Oct 15 '13 at 21:22
That worked now, thanks. and it did write the file. I need to understand why did it do that, when file_exists returns true with MY path. – Jony Kale Oct 15 '13 at 21:23
@Jony Kale: Only you write in there some crazy string path you don't understand doesn't help. Your path is just representing the root directory which does exist. But it's not a file. As the PHP manual page of `file_exists` cleary states, it checks if a directory exists. So you can congratulate yourself that you have just verified that the root directory exists :) - in short: you checked for something that always exists on a unix system. :D – hakre Oct 15 '13 at 21:35
@hakre maybe offtopic but according to http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php/5/all php 5.2 is about 37%, so it is not dead, but of course outdated – Iłya Bursov Oct 15 '13 at 21:40
@Ilya Bursov: These numbers are of no interest in the context of a programmer asking a PHP programming question on Stackoverflow, it's only waste if you put dead code into an answer on SO. – hakre Oct 15 '13 at 21:43

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 26 '18 at 18:12

0

check your php file permission that its set to 666 and also check permission of directory make sure its set to 777

answered Aug 26 '18 at 18:12

user889030

4,353
3
48
51

fopen doesn't write into the file?

2 Answers2