fopen() not working - php

Question

I'm want to read a simple string from a text file which is around 3-4 mb but fopen() fails ("can't open file" from die() is called). Here's the code:
clearstatcache();
$fh = fopen("/my/path/to/file.txt", "r") or die("can't open file");
$sql = fread($fh,filesize("/my/path/to/file.txt"));

Answer 1

Have you firstly checked to see if the file exists?
if (!file_exists("/my/path/to/file.txt") {
die('File does not exist');
}
clearstatcache();
$fh = fopen("/my/path/to/file.txt", "r") or die("can't open file");
$sql = fread($fh,filesize("/my/path/to/file.txt"));

Answer 2

you have to add to your code this line
error_reporting(E_ALL);
and ALWAYS keep this line in ALL your codes
and also this line
ini_set('display_errors',1);
and keep this line only on development server.
while on the production it should be changed to
ini_set('display_errors',0);
ini_set('log_errors',1);
By doing this you will not need Stackoverflow assistance in reading the now obvious error messages.

Answer 3

Change that second line to:
$fh = fopen("/my/path/to/file.txt", "r") or die($php_errormsg);
and see what it outputs as the cause.

Answer 4

Try to output system errors in die or try use try…catch. Also turn on php errors while development. Also check if file is readable before open it.
Most common issues are: file does not exists (or just incorrect path provided?), there is not enough permissions to read this file.

Answer 5

In your FTP file permissions tend to need to be 646 (or -rw-r--rw-), not 777 (always ignore those kind of comments). You want to give a key to someone you trust, setting permissions to 777 is like giving a copy of your key to everyone.

Answer 6

You should check that the specified file directory is inside the working directory. You can do this with 'getcwd'
echo getcwd();
If you still get the error, you should check the file permissions.
ls -l /my/path/to/file.txt
If you get this output "-rw-r--r--" you will see the file is writable for admin only.
To make the file writable for everyone use chmod command:
chmod 666 file.txt
You can check again with "ls -l", the z output should be "-rw-rw-rw-"