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Im not new to php or file permissions. But i just migrated an extremely simple script to a new server I setup.

The folder which the script runs is in the document root. The permissions for the folder are set to 755.

The owner of the folder is gsta. The owner of the file is gsta.

I turned on error_reporting and am getting:

Warning: fopen(log.txt): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /var/www/html/log.php on line 13

I've tried:

chmod("log.txt", 0777)

in php and also get permission denied.

Ive done:

ps -u | grep httpd

and got:

gsta      1012  0.0  0.0 108608   808 pts/3    S+   22:45   0:00 grep --color=auto httpd


$filename = 'log.txt';
$handle = fopen($filename,"a+");
echo "fh:" . fwrite($handle, $payload . "\n") . $handle . "<br/>";

even though it shouldnt matter PHP safemode is off

I tried setting the owner of the file to nobody (apache often runs under nobody, i also tried setting the owner to apache.

I have looked at every posting in google and its always the basic things, all of which I have tried. This was a known working script on a different server. I tried checking php.ini looking for some setting that would cause this issue. I have tried deleting the file (as it should create it in that case)

Does anyone have any ideas? Ive tried everything I can think of.

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jun 17 '11 at 7:58

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for apache to write it needs to have permission, or set the folder where u want to write to have the 777 permission –  Ibu Jun 17 '11 at 6:03
have you tried $ chmod 0777 log.txt by actually changing permission instead of using chmod()? –  tradyblix Jun 17 '11 at 6:04
You cannot chmod any file that isn't yours. Or, in this case, that isn't of the web server user (if you do it via php). –  Carlos Campderrós Jun 17 '11 at 7:56

4 Answers 4

Is there any possibility that some security stuff, like SELinux, stopped these actions?

I've run into a similar problem and the command setenforce 0, which would shut down SELinux, successfully resolved it.

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Thank you for saving me more grey hairs. (I'm on RedHat, for anyone else looking to resolve permissions issues) –  Mike Apr 24 '13 at 9:57

httpd or apache user is different. Check apache username from script with

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Is only possible when the function isn't forbidden via php.ini. –  CSchulz Jun 17 '11 at 23:09

I don't know what it could be, but have your tried creating the file from within your script. just rename the file, make sure fopen is set to read write mode (a should be fine) and have php create it for you.

If that doesn't work then your folder permissions are wrong, try setting the folder to 777

also on my box for some reason I have to use two zeros for chmod, 00777

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I had this "fopen permissions denied" problem on Android. chmod 0777 path/dir helped. –  18446744073709551615 Nov 13 '12 at 6:37

"log.txt" are you sure the file you're setting to 777 is the same one? Without a path to it, if the page thinks its running from say the root directory of your site, not the one you're in, you could get errors that way, the Some calls tend to also need the directory to have write permission - I dont think I ever got to the bottom of why some do, some dont.

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