Why file_put_contents() not always rewrites a file? - php

I wonder, why PHP file_put_contents() function works in a weird way.
I used it in a loop to write some logs to file and all was fine (new lines were appended even if no flag was specified). When I started the script again, it re-created my file.
From PHP doc:
If filename does not exist, the file is created. Otherwise, the
existing file is overwritten, unless the FILE_APPEND flag is set.
OK, so my question is: Why (when used in one loop) it doesn't overwrite my file (without FILE_APPEND flag of course)? Bug or feature? :)
Edit: Example context of use when this happened:
$logFile = dirname ( __FILE__ ) . '/example.log';
foreach($something1 as $sth1) {
$logData .= "Something\n";
foreach($something2 as $sth2) {
if($something_else) {
$logData .= "Line: \t" . $sth2 . "\n";
file_put_contents($logFile, $logData);
}
}
}

As it has been very clearly mentioned in this link under the flags content(which you should have read) it clearly states that if file filename already exists, append the data to the file instead of overwriting it(when this flag is set). So when the flag for FILE_APPEND is set it appends and when not it rewrites. Hope this helped you.

Alternative Way
<?php
$file = 'file.txt';
$append = true;
if (file_exists($file)) {
if ($append) {
// append file
$file = fopen($file, 'a+');
} else {
// overwrite file
$file = fopen($file, 'a');
}
} else {
// create file
$file = fopen($file, 'a');
}
fwrite($file, 'text');
fclose($file);
?>
here is a php fopen documentation
and php file
and read on its related topics

ok, when you are run the script each time try to rename the log file with random number or currentdate timestamp and try to save it in your DB
by this when you again run the script and can take the log file name from DB and update it when you needed

Related

PHP. How to read a file, if it is writing without a problem with "a+", but is not readable with "r"?

I have two scripts: one of them writes the value of a variable to a file. In another script, I try to read it. It is written without problems, but it is not readable.
Here I write to a file:
$peer_id=2000000001;
$fileLocation = getenv("DOCUMENT_ROOT") . "/peer_id.txt";
$file = fopen($fileLocation,"a+");
fwrite($file, $peer_id);
fclose($file);
Here I read the file:
$fileLocation = getenv("DOCUMENT_ROOT") . "/peer_id.txt";
$file = fopen($fileLocation,"r");
if(file_exists($fileLocation)){
// Result is TRUE
}
if(is_readable ($file)){
// Result is FALSE
}
// an empty variables, because the file is not readable
$peer_id = fread($file);
$peer_id = fileread($file);
$peer_id = file_get_contents($file);
fclose($file);
The code runs on "sprinthost" hosting, if that makes a difference. There are suspicions that this is because of that hosting.
file_get_contents in short runs the fopen, fread, and fclose. You don't use a pointer with it. You should just use:
$peer_id = file_get_contents($fileLocation);
That is the same for is_readable:
if(is_readable($fileLocation)){
// Result is FALSE
}
So full code should be something like:
$fileLocation = getenv("DOCUMENT_ROOT") . "/peer_id.txt";
if(file_exists($fileLocation) && is_readable($fileLocation)) {
$peer_id = file_get_contents($fileLocation);
} else {
echo 'Error message about file being inaccessible here';
}
The file_get_contents has an inverse function for writing; https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.file-put-contents.php. Use that with the append constant and you should have the same functionality your first code block had:
file_put_contents($fileLocation, $peer_id, FILE_APPEND | LOCK_EX);

My php script won't open files that aren't in its root directory

This is a php script for a user login system that I am developing.
I need it to read from, and write to, the /students/students.txt file, but it won't even read the content already contained in the file.
<?php
//other code
echo "...";
setcookie("Student", $SID, time()+43200, "/");
fopen("/students/students.txt", "r");
$content = fread("/students/students.txt", filesize("/students/students.txt"));
echo $content;
fclose("/students/students.txt");
fopen("/students/students.txt", "w");
fwrite("/students/students.txt", $content."\n".$SID);
fclose("/students/students.txt");
//other code
?>
You are not using fopen() properly. The function returns a handle that you then use to read or edit the file, for example:
//reading a file
if ($handle = fopen("/students/students.txt", "r"))
{
echo "info obtained:<br>";
while (($buffer = fgets($handle))!==false)
{ echo $buffer;}
fclose($handle);
}
//writing/overwriting a file
if ($handle = fopen("/students/students.txt", "w"))
{
fwrite($handle, "hello/n");
fclose($handle);
}
Let me know if that worked for you.
P.S.: Ty to the commentators for the constructive feedback.
There are many ways to read/write to file as others have demonstrated. I just want to illustrate the mistake in your particular approach.
fread takes a file handle as param, NOT a string that represents the path to the file.
So your line:
$content = fread("/students/students.txt", filesize("/students/students.txt")); is incorrect.
It should be:
$file_handle = fopen("/students/students.txt", "r");
$content = fread($file_handle, filesize("/students/students.txt"));
Same thing when you write contents to file using fwrite. Its reference to the file is a File Handle opened using fopen NOT the filepath. when opening a file using fopen() you can also check if the $file_handle returned is a valid resource or is false. If false, it means the fopen operation was not successful.
So your code:
fopen("/students/students.txt", "w");
fwrite("/students/students.txt", $content."\n".$SID);
fclose("/students/students.txt");
Needs to be re-written as:
$file_handle = fopen("/students/students.txt", "w");
fwrite($file_handle, $content."\n".$SID);
fclose($file_handle);
You can see that fclose operates on file handles as well.
File Handle (as per php.net):
A file system pointer resource that is typically created using fopen().
Here are a couple of diagnostic functions that allow you to validate that a file exists and is readable. If it is a permission issue, it gives you the name of the user that needs permission.
function PrintMessage($text, $success = true)
{
print "$text";
if ($success)
print " [<font color=\"green\">Success</font>]<br />\n";
else
print(" [<font color=\"red\">Failure</font>]<br />\n");
}
function CheckReadable($filename)
{
if (realpath($filename) != "")
$filename = realpath($filename);
if (!file_exists($filename))
{
PrintMessage("'$filename' is missing or inaccessible by '" . get_current_user() . "'", false);
return false;
}
elseif (!is_readable($filename))
{
PrintMessage("'$filename' found but is not readable by '" . get_current_user() . "'", false);
return false;
}
else
PrintMessage("'$filename' found and is readable by '" . get_current_user() . "'", true);
return true;
}
I've re-written your code with (IMO) a cleaner and more efficient code:
<?php
$SID = "SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS";
setcookie("Student", $SID, time()+43200, "/");
$file = "/students/students.txt"; //is the full path correct?
$content = file_get_contents($file); //$content now contains /students/students.txt
$size = filesize($file); //do you still need this ?
echo $content;
file_put_contents($file, "\n".$SID, FILE_APPEND); //do you have write permissions ?
file_get_contents
file_get_contents() is the preferred way to read the contents of a
file into a string. It will use memory mapping techniques if supported
by your OS to enhance performance.
file_put_contents
This function is identical to calling fopen(), fwrite() and
fclose() successively to write data to a file. If filename does not
exist, the file is created. Otherwise, the existing file is
overwritten, unless the FILE_APPEND flag is set.
Notes:
Make sure the full path /students/students.txt is
correct.
Check if you've read/write permissions on /students/students.txt
Learn more about linux file/folder permissions or, if you don't access to the shell, how to change file or directory permissions via ftp
Try to do this:
fopen("students/students.txt", "r");
And check to permissions read the file.

php: exclusive lock on file never obtained

On my php script, after parse a string, i need to write some data into a file (after create it if doesn't exist). Before write file, i need exclusive lock for avoid problems.
This is my code:
foreach ($elements[0] as $current) {
$file_handler = fopen($my_folder . "/" . $current . ".txt", "a");
$locked = flock($file_handler, "LOCK_EX");
while (!$locked) {
usleep(500000);
$locked = flock($file_handler, "LOCK_EX");
}
//got lock
fwrite($file_handler, $mystring . "\n");
//release lock
flock($file_handler, LOCK_UN);
fclose($file_handler);
}
return;
Now, something seems not work.
fopen create file, but my code seems go in loop inside while (file is created, but nothing was write inside). What's wrong?
You are passing the argument for locking as a string instead of a constant.
Try:
$locked = flock($file_handler, LOCK_EX);
Notice the missing double quotes around LOCK_EX

Developing a text editor with PHP

I've started a small project trying to make an online text editor, it WAS going well until the system started overwriting files and adding spaces in unnecessarily. I have one file called editor.php where all the file loading, saving and editing is done.
So this is the opening/closing for the files:
<?php
if(isset($_POST['new'])){
$filer = substr(md5(microtime()),rand(0,26),6);
$file_create = $filer.".txt";
$handle = fopen("files/".$file_create,"w");
fclose($handle);
header("Location: editor.php?e=".$filer);
}
$file = $_GET['e'];
$file = basename($file);
$filename = "files/".$file.".txt";
$file_get = file_get_contents($filename);
if(isset($_POST['save'])){
file_put_contents($filename, $_POST['text']);
}
?>
further down the page I have this in a <textarea> tag:
<?php
echo $file_content;
?>
This uses the string from the file_get_contents();
But when I save, nothing happens, in fact it erases the file, when I load a file there are eight spaces but nothing else.
I know there is another way to do this with fopen() and if someone could give me a method to use that, it would be much appreciated.
You have to verify if the $_POST['text'] actually has a content in it.
if(isset($_GET['e'])){
$file = $_GET['e'];
$file = basename($file);
$filename = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/files/".$file.".txt";
$file_get = file_get_contents($filename);
if(isset($_POST['save'])){
if(!empty($_POST['text']) && isset($_POST['text']))
{
$length = strlen($_POST['text']);
if($length > 0)
file_put_contents($filename, trim($_POST['text']));
else
die("No content");
}
}
}
ALso check if the file exists and its writable. You can use chmod,mkdir and file_exists functions.
Have a look at PHP's file modes: http://php.net/manual/en/function.fopen.php
If you are opening all your files using fopen() in w mode then your files are being truncated as they are opened. This is how w mode operates. Try using a+ or c+ modes with fopen().
EDIT
Also, the file_put_contents() will also overwrite file contents unless you sett the FILE_APPEND flag, e.g. file_put_contents($file, $data, FILE_APPEND).

php zip file not created despite no erros, no permission problems, no empty folders, no

Okay. Every file exists, is readable, and is writable. ZIP produces no errors, and outputs: "numfiles: 140 status:0".
the code reads a log, checks for specific text, then imports a number of images into a zip folder. everything runs great except the zip folder is always empty. I've read a lot of threads about this, and they all were resolved by changing permissions, modifying paths and checking for read/write/exist/errors. but... nothing has worked. whats up?
<?php
$file = fopen("log.log", "r") or exit("Unable to open file!");
$zip = new ZipArchive();
$filename = "E:/Web Sites/whatever/order_stream/images.zip";
$try_file = $zip->open($filename,ZIPARCHIVE::OVERWRITE);
if ($try_file !== true) {
exit("cannot open <$filename>\n");
}
while(!feof($file)) {
$line = fgets($file);
$results = explode(": ", $line);
if ($results[0] == "Copying" || $results[0] == "File already exists, overwriting") {
$file_name = substr($results[1],19);
$to_zip = "E:/Web Sites/whatever/catalog/pictures/".$file_name;
$to_zip = trim($to_zip);
if (file_exists($to_zip)) {
$zip->addFile($to_zip);
}
}
}
echo "numfiles: " . $zip->numFiles . "\n";
echo "status:" . $zip->status . "\n";
$zip->close();
fclose($file);
?>
The ZipArchive::addFile() method accepts the path to the file as its first parameter, but not all paths are created equal. addFile() method silently rejects (bug?) the file and you never know what went wrong. An alternative approach would be:
// $zip->addFile($file);
$content = file_get_contents($file);
$zip->addFromString(pathinfo ( $file, PATHINFO_BASENAME), $content);
In addition to getting the code working, file_get_contents() also generates decent error messages if you made an error in the path. In this example
$file = $full_directory_path_ending_with_slash.$filename;
Since in the above question, you have the parts in your fingers, the code could simply become:
$content = file_get_contents($to_zip);
$zip->addFromString($filename, $content);

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