counter with IP block via files - PHP - php

Question

I tried to write a counter for visits of my page, which only counts each IP once per day.
I transcribed a found code to understand how it works and to implement some other features later.
Unfortunately my new code doesn't work.
Code I made from it:
<?php
$timeReset = 86400; //24h
$ipPath = "ipsafe.txt";
$countPath = "counts.txt";
$timePath = "time.txt";
$ip = $REMOTE_ADDR;
$time = time();
$resetTime = $time+$timeReset;
$timeFile = fopen($timePath, "r+");
$timeData = fread($timeFile, filesize($timePath));
//if resetTime is passed -> Reset
if($time >= $timeData) {
//clear ipSafe
$ipFile1 = fopen($ipPath, "w+");
fclose($ipFile);
//set new resetTime
rewind($timeData);
fwrite ($timeData, $resetTime);
}
fclose($timeFile);
//creat IP-List
$ipData = file($ipPath);
while (list ($line_num, $line) = each ($ipData)) {
$digits = explode(",",$line);
}
//if IP was not saved in last timeframe
if(!in_array($ip, $digits))
{
//write new IP
$ipFile2=fopen($ipPath, "a+");
#flock($ipFile1,2);
fwrite($ipFile2, "$ip".",");
#flock($ipFile1,3);
fclose($ipFile2);
//increment counter
$countFile = fopen($countPath,"r+");
$countData = fread($countFile, filesize($countPath);
rewind($countFile);
$countData++;
fwrite($countFile, $countData);
fclose($countFile);
}
?>
with the following questions:
what's wrong with my code?
flock is used to manage the access to the files, but why shall I use different names for the same file?
Thanks for your suggestions.
EDIT:
Sorry for being so unspecific in explaining the problem. After integrating a debugger, I changed "REMOTE_ADDR" to "$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']" so I fixed 1 error. Now i got the following problems:
Warning: fopen(time.txt): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in .../counter.php on line 15
But the file is in the same directory as counter.php - of course the fread and filesize failed too
Warning: fopen(ipsafe.txt): failed to open stream: Permission denied in .../counter.php on line 20
The file doesn't exist yet, but I thought "fopen($ipPath, "w+");" creats it if it doesn't exist.
Fatal error: Call to undefined function fb() in .../counter.php on line 26
Doesn't "fb($timeFile);" send the value to firePHP?

Answer 1

Not doing a full code review (which would result in an almost full rewrite of your code), here are the things I would recommend changing to fix your listed issues:
The following line uses $REMOTE_ADDR, which is undefined.
$ip = $REMOTE_ADDR;
You most likely meant to use $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] (which you confirmed with your edit), so the line should read:
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
You state you're receiving an error attempting to open the time.txt file: "No such file or directory". You also say that the file exists in the same directory as counter.php - and yet you're still receiving this error. This can mean one of two things; the first, the file doesn't exist and you're mistaken; the second, your counter.php file is in a different directory than whatever script is executing it - this would mean that the time.txt file would need to be in the directory of the executing script. I would recommend two things for this.
The first, if the file actually exists, use an absolute path for it:
$timePath = '/path/to/your/files/time.txt';
The second, verify if the file exists (in code) and if not, create it. fopen() with r/r+ flags does not create a file if it doesn't exist, so this needs to be manual. Try changing the code to the following:
if (!file_exists($timePath)) touch($timePath);
$timeFile = fopen($timePath, 'r+');
if ($timeFile) {
// the rest of your code
}
You say you're receiving an error when opening the ipsafe.txt file: "Permission denied". This is a fun one; Though the line numbers don't match with your sample code, I believe these are the lines in question:
//clear ipSafe
$ipFile1 = fopen($ipPath, "w+");
fclose($ipFile);
The first issue is that you never use $ipFile1 in your code (except erroneously locking/unlocking it; see below for that info). The second is that you call fclose($ipFile);. There is no handle named $ipFile! You can remove these lines of code!
You attempt to rewind the file pointer in your time.txt file to write the new time, however, you're using the value you read-in from the file $timeData - not the file itself $timeFile. Update the lines to the following:
rewind($timeFile);
fwrite($timeFile, $resetTime);
You read in the file ipsafe.txt, again, to look through the full list of IP addresses - if the current user's IP isn't in it, you add it. This may be a logic issue, but you're only checking the IP addresses of the last line of the file - but you still iterate through every line of the item. Per the comment in the code: //if IP was not saved in last timeframe, I'm going to assume that this is what you're intending to do - but just in case - I would recommend moving the full if-statement block that appears below the loop to inside the loop.
Here's the fun block:
//write new IP
$ipFile2=fopen($ipPath, "a+");
#flock($ipFile1,2);
fwrite($ipFile2, "$ip".",");
#flock($ipFile1,3);
fclose($ipFile2);
You open the file into $ipFile2 (2), then you lock a completely different file $ipFile1 (1), write to 2, unlock 1, and then close 2. I think that you're intentions were to lock/unlock 2, which would make perfect sense here, so I'd recommend changing $ipFile1 to $ipFile2 in those lines.
That should about do it (potentially). After everything, the code should resemble something similar to:
<?php
$timeReset = 86400; //24h
$ipPath = "ipsafe.txt";
$countPath = "counts.txt";
$timePath = "time.txt";
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$time = time();
$resetTime = $time+$timeReset;
if (!file_exists($timePath)) touch($timePath);
$timeFile = fopen($timePath, "r+");
if ($timeFile) {
$timeData = fread($timeFile, filesize($timePath));
//if resetTime is passed -> Reset
if($time >= $timeData) {
//set new resetTime
rewind($timeFile);
fwrite ($timeFile, $resetTime);
}
fclose($timeFile);
//creat IP-List
$ipData = file($ipPath);
while (list ($line_num, $line) = each ($ipData)) {
$digits = explode(",",$line);
}
//if IP was not saved in last timeframe
if(!in_array($ip, $digits)) {
//write new IP
$ipFile2=fopen($ipPath, "a+");
#flock($ipFile2, LOCK_EX);
fwrite($ipFile2, "$ip".",");
#flock($ipFile2, LOCK_UN);
fclose($ipFile2);
//increment counter
if (!file_exists($countPath)) touch($countPath);
$countFile = fopen($countPath,"r+");
if ($countFile) {
$countData = fread($countFile, filesize($countPath);
if (empty($countData)) $countData = 0; // initialize the counter to '0' if it hasn't been set
rewind($countFile);
$countData++;
fwrite($countFile, $countData);
fclose($countFile);
}
}
}
?>
Now, I also have one additional logic issue regarding your $resetTime variable. Ideally, incrementing by a single day is to add 24 hours to a given timestamp (24 hours = 86400 seconds). However, daylight savings time will break this. Instead of doing the following:
$resetTime = time() + 86400;
Try going a different route (if you're worried about this, that is):
$resetTime = strtotime('+1 day');