PHP: Write to disk permission

Question

I am trying to make a notepad application which saves files if you press save, but it gives an error. I think the script(or apache) doesn't have the permissions to write to the disk but I might be wrong.

Does anyone know what to change about my code or how to set the permissions? It would be heavily gracious and appreciated if someone could fix this problem for me.

Code(Yes I know this is spaghetti-code but this is how I learned html and php):

<html>
<style>
button {
    display: inline-block;
    background-color: #4CAF50;
    padding: 15px 32px;
    font-size: 16px;
    font-size: 16px;
    color: white;
    text-align: center;
    border: none;

}
</style>
<style>
    input {
    display: inline-block;
    background-color: #4CAF50;
    padding: 15px 32px;
    font-size: 16px;
    font-size: 16px;
    color: white;
    text-align: center;
    border: none;

}
</style>
<center><b><font size="7">Notepad</font></b></center>
<br>
<center><form>
        <textarea rows="1" cols="50" name="filename">filename</textarea>
        <br>
        <textarea rows="1" cols="50" name="text">Lorem ipsum</textarea>
        <input type="submit" name="submit" value="save">
    </form></center>
<br>
</html>
<?php

if(isset($_GET['text'])) {
    $text = $_GET['text'];
    $filename = $_GET['filename'];

    $myfile = fopen("$filename", "w") or die("Unable to open file!");
    $txt = $text;
    fwrite($myfile, $txt);
    fclose($myfile);

    echo("<center>Your file is saved as $filename</center>");
}

?>

BTW: I am hosting this script on my LinuxMint(Ubuntu linux) computer using Apache2 and PHP

**but it gives an error** So would you tell us the error (ALL OF IT) just in case it might be relevant — RiggsFolly, Feb 17 '20 at 15:59
Thanks for commenting, it is giving the error: Unable to open file, wait I will remove the or die part so I can see the exact error — Bluppie05, Feb 17 '20 at 16:00
Add [error reporting](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/845021/) to the top of your file(s) _while testing_ right after your opening PHP tag for example ` — RiggsFolly, Feb 17 '20 at 16:05

Alexandro Setiawan · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-17T16:02:49.923

1

Try chown -R www-data:www-data /path-to-root-directory

edited Feb 17 '20 at 16:02

answered Feb 17 '20 at 16:02

Alexandro Setiawan

96
7

yeah sorry. edited – Alexandro Setiawan Feb 17 '20 at 16:03
Do I need to run this command in my linux terminal or do I need to paste this in my script? – Bluppie05 Feb 17 '20 at 16:04
and do you mean by root directory /var/www/html or /var/www or something else? – Bluppie05 Feb 17 '20 at 16:05
run in your linux terminal – Alexandro Setiawan Feb 17 '20 at 16:05
yes /var/www/html (if default) – Alexandro Setiawan Feb 17 '20 at 16:05
Thank you soooooooo much, it is working!!! Normally when I use this sort of php scripts I work on an external hosted php server and there is this preconfigured – Bluppie05 Feb 17 '20 at 16:07

PHP: Write to disk permission

1 Answers1