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Message-Id: <2972164.SPkdTlGXAF@PointedEars.de>
From: Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de>
Reply-To: Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <php@PointedEars.de>
Organization: PointedEars Software (PES)
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:55:45 +0200
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Subject: Re: Command line cannot fwrite, browser can
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Adrienne Boswell wrote:

> Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
>> Adrienne Boswell wrote:
>>> Jerry Stuckle writing:
>>>> Adrienne Boswell wrote:
>>>>> Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn writing:
>>>>>>> $groupmail = fopen( $filename,'w' ) or die( 'cannot open
>>>>>>> groupmail.html' );
>>>>>> <http://www.phpfreaks.com/blog/or-die-must-die>
>>>>> Thank you for all your help, and the link.  I have read it and will
>>>>> implement it.
>>>> I think you have another problem.  Single vs. double quotes would
>>>> not make any difference in the code you posted.
>>> […]
>>> Yes, this is nagging me, too.  I just checked it ran it right now (I
>>> also moved the script so it is not accessible to the WWW),
>> 
>> This is not the World Wide Web, an application of the Internet, but
>> Usenet, a part of the Network News network (a growing part of which is
>> part of the Internet).  So you may – SHOULD – as well post the
>> *relevant* *parts* of your working code here.
> 
> Ok, here is the relavent piece of code (the relavent parts were snipped by
> Jerry).

ACK, thanks.

> Originally (with line numbers and I have replaced the real domain with
> example.com):
> 
> 68	$filename = "C:\Inetpub\vhosts\example.com\httpdocs\groupmail
> \groupmail.html";
> 
> 80	$groupmail = fopen( $filename,'w' ) or die( 'cannot open
> groupmail.html' );
> 
> 
> Warning:
> fopen(C:\Inetpub?hosts\example.com\httpdocs\groupmail\groupmail.ht ml):
> failed to open stream: Invalid argument in C:\Inetpub\vhosts
> \example.com\httpdocs\groupmail.php on line 80 cannot open groupmail.html
> 
> 
> So when I changed line 68 to:
> 
> 68	$filename = 'C:\Inetpub\vhosts\example.com\httpdocs\groupmail
> \groupmail.html';

I can see the problem now.  You have used the sequence "\v" in your string 
literal.  That makes the difference, because in double-quoted strings it is 
parsed as a <VT> (vertical tab) character (that originates from early TTYs 
and is hardly used nowadays, but kept for backwards compatibility [1]).

Hence the question mark in the warning after the "b" of "Inetpub", and the 
missing "v" after it.  <VT> is not one of the printable characters, so a 
replacement character is used to display it.

In a single-quoted string, that and most other escape sequences carry no 
special meaning [2].  So the path fits, and the file can be opened, then.

Since you cannot know beforehand which escape sequences are considered by a 
certain version of PHP (other than `\\'), you should always escape literal 
backslashes in string literals: "\\" or '\\' [2].  In fact, you MUST escape 
them when at the end of the string value, because otherwise \" or \' 
constitute escape sequences of themself, and the string value is not 
terminated:

$ php -a
Interactive mode enabled

<?php echo "foo\";
^D
PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting T_VARIABLE or 
T_DOLLAR_OPEN_CURLY_BRACES or T_CURLY_OPEN in - on line 2

$ php -a
Interactive mode enabled

<?php echo 'foo\';
^D
PHP Parse error:  syntax error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE in - on 
line 1

$ php -v
PHP 5.3.3-7+squeeze1 with Suhosin-Patch (cli) (built: Mar 18 2011 17:22:52) 
Copyright (c) 1997-2009 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2010 Zend Technologies
    with XCache v1.3.1, Copyright (c) 2005-2010, by mOo
    with Xdebug v2.1.0, Copyright (c) 2002-2010, by Derick Rethans
    with Suhosin v0.9.32.1, Copyright (c) 2007-2010, by SektionEins GmbH

[FYI: ^D stands for the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D, which prints <ETX> (end of 
text), an ASCII character (code point 0x03) that signals to the process that 
the standard input stream is finished.  It can also be used to `logout' 
quickly from a unixoid shell.]

But for file paths you can replace the backslashes with forward slashes 
(`/') even in WinDOS, which do not need to be escaped [3].

>> That puts into serious doubt whether you are worth getting further,
>> rather time-consuming, answers like the ones I give to you.  Think
>> about that.
> 
> One of the reasons I came here was because I have high respect for your
> knowledge.

Thank you.

> You might think that because I'm girl I have thin skin, but I don't.

All people are the same before PointedEars ;-)

> I have been around Usenet since 1996, so I have seen a lot,
> including your latest run-in with Jukka Korpela.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What is that supposed to mean?  (You may reply to this by PM.)


Please trim your quotes to the relevant minimum [4]. 


PointedEars
___________
[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_tab#Tab_characters>
[2] <http://php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php>
[3] <http://php.net/fopen>
[4] <http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html>
-- 
Danny Goodman's books are out of date and teach practices that are
positively harmful for cross-browser scripting.
 -- Richard Cornford, cljs, <cife6q$253$1$8300dec7@news.demon.co.uk> (2004)