Exec and Include function not working - php

Question

I am trying to visualize a file file.txt via php. It is present in the same folder as the php code. this file is outcome of a perl program 1.pl
I am using the following code:
exec("perl C:/inetpub/wwwroot/1.pl arg1");
include("ctrlG.txt");
I have fast-cgi module activated on my server, which works fine otherwise.
Both the above are not executing.
It returns following Error:
PHP Warning:
include() [<a href='function.include'>function.include</a>]: Unable to access ctrlG.txt in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\upload_file.php on line ##.
PHP Warning:
include(ctrlG.txt) [<a href='function.include'>function.include</a>]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\upload_file.php on line ##.
PHP Warning:
include() [<a href='function.include'>function.include</a>]: Failed opening 'ctrlG.txt' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\php\pear') in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\upload_file.php on line ##.
Please help to correct the code or any other problem.
OR
better methods to execute perl and visualize text files in browser using php.

Answer 1

Firstly, check the file you're looking for exists:
$file = 'ctrlG.txt';
if(!file_exists($file)) die("File '{$file}' does not exist");
Secondly, check if it is readable:
if(!is_readable($file)) die("File '{$file}' is not readable");
The most likely scenario is that the file exists and does not have readable permissions set so that apache (or whatever user your web server is running as) can read it.
Bear in mind that if you first ran this script through CLI (command-line interface) then the file generated will probably be owned by the user who ran the script - so apache may not be able to read this file for security reasons.
In Linux, you can change the file group and permissions to be readable by the apache user like so:
chgrp apache ctrlG.txt
chmod g+r ctrlG.txt