PHP - Creating .txt document in Ubuntu

Question

I am having trouble using fopen() to create a text document for later use as a cookie file.

I have read the documentation for this function, but to no avail.

Notes:

Ubuntu
read / writable ("w+")
I have tried several storage locations including:
- /home/jack/Desktop/cookie
- /var/www/cookie
- /home/jack/Documents/cookie

PHP

echo "debug";
echo "\r\n";

$cookie = fopen("/home/jack/Documents/cookie", "w+");
fclose($cookie);

if(!file_exists($cookie) || !is_writable($cookie))
{
    if(!file_exists($cookie))
    {
        echo 'Cookie file does not exist.';
    }
    if(!is_writable($cookie))
    {
        echo 'Cookie file is not writable.';
    }

    exit;
}

Result

file is not created
Output to browser: debug Cookie file does not exist.Cookie file is not writable.

Other Fun Facts

I have tried using fopen(realpath("/home/jack/Documents/cookie"), "w+")
echo "\r\n" gives a space. Why not a newline?

I believe the problem must be something to do with my permissions to create the file, but I have no problem "right-click" creating the text document on the Desktop.

THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS

echo "debug";
echo "\n";

$jack = "jack";
$cookie = "/home/jack/Documents/cookie";
touch($cookie);
chmod($cookie, 0760);

if(!file_exists($cookie) || !is_writable($cookie))
{
    if(!file_exists($cookie))
    {
        echo 'Cookie file does not exist.';
    }
    if(!is_writable($cookie))
    {
        echo 'Cookie file is not writable.';
    }

    exit;
}

fclose($cookie);

THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS THIS WORKS

Instead of fopen()..

touch() to create
chmod() for permissions

I also added user name jack to www-data group.

chmod($path, 0760) group read / write

Reference

chmod() octal values here.

First step: [Turn on error reporting](http://stackoverflow.com/a/6575502/1438393). — Amal Murali, Jan 07 '14 at 20:14
Is your web server running as the same user you're logged in as when you're right clicking? (If so, you've probably done something Horribly Wrong). — Wooble, Jan 07 '14 at 20:18
1) use `\n` for newlines on an Unix machine; 2) What permission/owner for the file? — Damien Pirsy, Jan 07 '14 at 20:19
Do you run this even through a webserver or just `php script.php` / shebang ? — Daniel W., Jan 07 '14 at 20:56

Jeff Lambert · Answer 1 · 2014-01-07T20:25:06.800

Look at the documentation for file_exists again. It does not take a file handle as an argument, it takes a string filename. The same is true for is_writable. Even if it did, you are opening the file handle and then immediately closing it, so I'm not sure why you're trying to use the file pointer at all after it's been closed.

You may be correct in that you have improper permissions set, but I would start here, first.

Also, if you're only trying to create the file, you may look into using the touch method, instead:

if( touch( $filename ) ) {
    // It worked!
} else {
    // It didn't work...
}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 07 '14 at 20:20

It looks like a permission issue. What user is PHP running as? It's likely running as www-data or something similar. You should make sure that the folders you are trying to write to are writable by either the user or group that PHP is running as. If you created those folders while logged in a jack, they probably belong to jack:jack and are not accessible by www-data:www-data.

You can also add jack to the www-data group, to make things a bit easier for development.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 07 '14 at 20:20

1

The web server is not executing as your user. touch /home/jack/Documents/cookie && chmod 777 /home/jack/Documents/cookie to allow the web server user to access the file.

Note this is BAD in production environments.

answered Jan 07 '14 at 20:20

PaulProgrammer

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PHP - Creating .txt document in Ubuntu

3 Answers3