php mkdir() chmod and permissions

Question

i was using this basic script:

$folderPath = "../path/to/$folder/";
mkdir("$folderPath");

i create this directory and then upload photos to it. I've been doing this for a good 4-5 months now and suddenly i start getting 'FORBIDDEN' errors when I attempt to view the contents of the folder via web browser

The directory is being created the same and the photos are still uploading without a problem, but I cannot access the photos

I tried rewriting the script and using chmod to change the permissions but I'm having no luck at all

All the older folders were being created with: -w- rwx rx rx

and I can't get this recreated

I've tried adding a chmod line into my script:

$folderPath = "../sales/inventory/$folder/";
mkdir("$folderPath");
chmod("$folderPath", 0755);

but I can't recreate the same permissions, I'm trying to understand how chmod works, but I can't figure out how to get this very basic function working properly again

Answer 1

Try looking out for a HTAccess file, where the "Options -Indexes" option will be mentioned, as this is mostly used for not showing the contents of a folder in a web browser. The file needs to be searched in the following manner:-

• In the folder " root_folder/sales/inventory/$folder/ ", where " $folder " is as mentioned in your code.
• If not found, try in the folder "root_folder/sales/inventory/".
• If not found, try in the folder "root_folder/sales/".
• If not found, try in the folder "root_folder/".

When you get the code of "Options -Indexes" written in the HTAccess file, you can remove / comment that line of code from there, or you can also write another HTAccess file in your required folder of " $folder ", where the code will be "Options Indexes".

Also in the PHP page, the logic must be like this:-

<?php
$folderPath = "../sales/inventory/$folder/";
mkdir("$folderPath");
chmod("$folderPath", 0755);

// Use of "copy()" / "move_uploaded_file()" function here, using some "$targetFile" variable.
chmod($targetFile, 0755);
?>

This will help you when you will be unlinking / deleting the uploaded files from the "$folder" folder.

Hope it helps.

Answer 2

If your $folder variable includes some sub-directories your parent directories are maybe not being chmoded to the right permissions. This was the problem I was having on a hired OVH Gentoo server.

Imagine that $folder = '/store1/ally23/shelf42'; so your final directory structure is ../sales/inventory/store1/ally23/shelf42 , and you want 0777 permisions. You do:

mkdir($folderPath, 0777, true) || chmod($folderPath, 0777);

Only the final directory shelf42 is chmoded to 0777 . The intermediary directories are created with default permissions (in my case 0744 ).

There is no recursive option in PHP's chmod command, so you have to loop over the intermediary directories and chmod them individually.

Answer 3

If you're in a shared environment, you may also want to chown after upload, to be on the safe side. Especially if you're running your web server under a user other than your virtual host has permission to access (EG: "nobody" vs "mysite".) This is common with cPanel servers, FWIW.

Answer 4

Simply umask means the default permissions for new files/directories:

<?php
 umask(022);
?>

This sets the default permissions for user, groups, and others respectively:

• 0 - read, write and execute
• 1 - read and write
• 2 - read and execute
• 3 - read only
• 4 - write and execute
• 5 - write only
• 6 - execute only
• 7 - no permissions