Drupal 7 save user picture programmatically - php

Question

I have found this script http://d.danylevskyi.com/node/7 which I have used as a starter for the below code.
The goal is to be able to save a user picture:
<?php
define('DRUPAL_ROOT', getcwd());
require_once DRUPAL_ROOT . '/includes/bootstrap.inc';
drupal_bootstrap(DRUPAL_BOOTSTRAP_FULL);
$uid = 99;
$account = user_load($uid);
// get image information
$image_path = 'public://avatars/upload/b8f1e69e83aa12cdd3d2babfbcd1fe27_4.gif';
$image_info = image_get_info($image_path);
// create file object
$file = new StdClass();
$file->uid = $uid;
$file->uri = $image_path;
$file->filemime = $image_info['mime_type'];
$file->status = 0; // Yes! Set status to 0 in order to save temporary file.
$file->filesize = $image_info['file_size'];
// standard Drupal validators for user pictures
$validators = array(
'file_validate_is_image' => array(),
'file_validate_image_resolution' => array(variable_get('user_picture_dimensions', '85x85')),
'file_validate_size' => array(variable_get('user_picture_file_size', '30') * 1024),
);
// here all the magic :)
$errors = file_validate($file, $validators);
if (empty($errors)) {
file_save($file);
$edit['picture'] = $file;
user_save($account, $edit);
}
?>
A picture is created in sites/default/files/pictures/ with the name picture-99-1362753611.gif
Everything seems correct in the file_managed table except that:
the filename field is empty
the uri field shows public://avatars/upload/b8f1e69e83aa12cdd3d2babfbcd1fe27_4.gif
the status field is set to 0 (temporary)
The picture field in the users table gets updated with the fid of the above mentioned entry.
I would guess that the file_managed table should store the final file (in sites/default/pictures) instead of the original file info and that the users table should link to the one too.
Any idea how I can achieve that? I am quite new to the Drupal API. Thank you.
Edit:
I understand that I am giving the original file to the file_save and user_save functions. But which one actually creates the file in sites/default/pictures/ ?

Answer 1

Try adding the following to your code:
$file->filename = drupal_basename($image_path);
$file->status = FILE_STATUS_PERMANENT;
$file = file_save($file); // Use this instead of your current file_save
Does that help?
------------------ EDIT ------------------
If you want to save a copy of the file in a new location, you can replace the third line above with something like
// Save the file to the root of the files directory.
$file = file_copy($file, 'public://');