Beware of PHP 4.3.2 and Windows File Functions!

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

I always start testing my applications as soon as the beta's and RC's are published. PHP 4.3.2 under Windows and File Functions don't play well together. I have isolated the code that has problems and posted it to PHP's bug tracking system. We have traded many comments. At first I showed them how you could crash Apache. that bug was fixed in 12 hours Smile

. However, I can produce code that has nothing to do with KISGB and make it fail 100% of the time when writing out a file. Under PHP 4.3.1 and prior it works perfectly! They say they cannot reproduce it and so there is no problem Mad

. Well, good luck!

The bad news is unless you upgrade to v5.1 of KISGB, once it is released, there is a very good chance that your guestbook will be rendered unusable Mad

Here is the code that fails 100% of the time. If someone else would try it under WINXP or WIN2K and let me know if it's just me or if you can reproduce it, we may be able to get it fixed before they release it.

http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=23296

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 4:27 am

I've just received confirmation that it also fails under Win98SE! If you read this and can confirm our findings, PLEAS let them know at te PHP Bug Traq! Remember that it's the code that is failing, not KISGB, so don't isolate it to KISGB. Here is the script that works under 4.3.1 but fails under 4.3.2

Code:




<?


$myArray[] = 'msgid'."\n";


$myArray[] = '1049987091'."\n";


$myArray[] = '1050930128'."\n";





$fp = fopen("problemFile.php",'w') or die("Unable to open file");


for ($i=0;$i<count($myArray);$i++) {


if ($i==0) $prefx = "<? Header(\"HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden\");exit;?>\n";


else $prefx = "";


fwrite($fp,$prefx.$myArray[$i]);


}


fclose($fp);


?>

Posted: Thu May 01, 2003 9:52 pm

Well, FINALLY! The boys at PHP have confirmed that the behavior has changed and they believe they know why. But, the rub is, it's a Windows problem and PHP always has been correct, now it's even MORE correct Mad

. Actually, I understand and believe them, but nonetheless I have assured them that will have some unhappy users and developers if they publish this without preparing the public! Stay tuned .....