Search and open for file - php

Question

I have a script that I have made so far which looks for a specified file in the current directory and if it isn't there, it will go up a directory and search again.
If the file exists the script works fine, however if it doesn't it goes on until the script is cancelled for being longer than 30 seconds, even with a counter to limit the executions in place.
$path = 'log.log';
$file_exists = 0;
$search_count = 0;
$search_limit = 3;
while($file_exists == 0) {
while($search_count < $search_limit) {
if(file_exists($path)) {
$file_exists = 1;
$search_count = $search_limit + 1;
$resource = fopen($path, "r");
while (!feof($resource)) {
echo fgetss($resource);
}
fclose($resource);
} else {
$path = '../'.$path;
$search_count++;
}
}
}

Answer 1

I think you're looking for something like this:
$path = 'log.log';
$file_exists = false;
$search_count = 0;
$search_limit = 3;
while (!$file_exists and $search_count < $search_limit) {
if(file_exists($path)) {
$file_exists = true;
$resource = fopen($path, "r");
while (!feof($resource)) {
echo fgetss($resource);
}
fclose($resource);
} else {
$path = '../'.$path;
$search_count++;
}
}
EDIT: if you're just after the content of the log.log-file you can use file_get_contents($path) like this:
...
if(file_exists($path)) {
$file_exists = true;
$contents = file_get_contents($path);
echo $contents;
}
...
Find more info about the file_get_contents method here.

Answer 2

while($file_exists == 0)
will be infinite, because you are only setting $file_exists to 1 when the file is found
suppose the file isnt there, then the internal loop will run only for three times, but the outer loop will run infinitely (although without any executable statements)
EDIT:
you could merge the conditions as
while($file_exists == 0 && $search_count < $search_limit) {
//your entire code
}