Why is my PHP file upload code not working?

Question

I am trying to make a simple file upload form using PHP. Here's my code:

<?php
    $uploads_dir = '/uploads';

    if(isset($_FILES['thefile'])){
      $errors= array();
      $file_name = $_FILES['thefile']['name'];
      $file_size =$_FILES['thefile']['size'];
      $file_tmp =$_FILES['thefile']['tmp_name'];
      $file_type=$_FILES['thefile']['type'];
      $tmp_name = $_FILES['thefile']["tmp_name"];

      if($file_size > 2097152){
         $errors[]='File size must be less than 2 MB';
      }
      if(empty($errors)==true){
         move_uploaded_file($tmp_name, "$uploads_dir/$file_name");
         echo "Success";
      }
      else{
         print_r($errors);
      }
   }
?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Simple File Upload</title>
</head>
<body>

<form action="" method="POST" enctype="multipart/form-data">
    <input type="file" name="thefile" />
    <input type="submit"/>
</form>

</body>
</html>

I realize that I'm not limiting file types, but I'll worry about that once I can get a simple .jpg or .zip file uploaded. Using the above code, I go to the page on my local server located at

C:\wamp\www\simpleupload  (this contains index.php, the file posted above)

When I select a small image file and click submit, I'm presented with the following errors:

Warning: move_uploaded_file(/uploads/session_timeout_formatting_bug.png): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\wamp\www\project_fileshare\index.php on line 18

and

Warning: move_uploaded_file(): Unable to move 'C:\wamp\tmp\phpEFDE.tmp' to '/uploads/session_timeout_formatting_bug.png' in C:\wamp\www\project_fileshare\index.php on line 18

Line 18 is the line that calls the move_uploaded_file() function.

How do I fix this error? I have an 'uploads_dir' folder located in the same folder as my index.php file. (reference the file path above). What am I doing wrong here? I must be misunderstanding some small part of this process and have put my directory in the wrong place, or I'm doing something wrong in the code.

Can someone spot my mistake and tell me what I need to do to fix it?

try a full system path /var/usr/public/uploads or relative path ../uploads. Plus make sure that if the folder does exist, has proper permissions to write to it. — Funk Forty Niner
– Funk Forty Niner, Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 0:30
FYI the first if statement is not doing nothing there, you dont validate files that way. google for is_upload_ok.. somehing like that... i dont remember, but i know that that line is not doing nothing there — Maduro
– Maduro, Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 0:38
And also get the root directory from DIR__ that will be easy to find to root of the file — Maduro
– Maduro, Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 0:41

Latheesan · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-22 01:17:28Z

2

You are working on windows and you've told PHP a location that is inaccessible (i.e. /uploads linux path).

Since you are working in windows and your document root is C:\wamp\www\simpleupload

Which means, your files are located like this:

C:\wamp\www\simpleupload\index.php (your upload script)
C:\wamp\www\simpleupload\uploads (where the files should be uploaded)

Why don't you use absolute path like this:

$uploads_dir = getcwd() . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'uploads';

The getcwd() function will return the current working directory for the executing PHP script (in your case index.php), so the $uploads_dir will now look like this: C:\wamp\www\simpleupload\uploads

Try this.

answered Nov 22, 2015 at 1:17

Latheesan

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2 Comments

jros Over a year ago

I'll give it a shot when I get home!

Maduro Over a year ago

@jros Look at my answer, I'm not saying that will solve your problem, but its an important step for your code =)

Xorifelse · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-22 01:32:41Z

0

If your upload directory is in the same location as your index.php remove the "/" in your $uploads_dir variable. This, or add a "." before the slash because now it refers to the root which might be something else then your current working directory. Speaking of the devil; http://php.net/manual/en/function.getcwd.php

$uploads_dir = getcwd() . '\uploads';
$uploads_dir = __DIR__ . '\uploads'; #php > 5.6

Also, check if your directory is writeable for php: http://php.net/manual/en/function.is-writable.php

Also what Latheesan said, better to go cross platform as I made the same mistake seen in my edit.

<?php
    function buildPath(...$segments){
        return join(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $segments);
    }

    echo buildPath(__DIR__, 'uploads');
?>

edited Nov 22, 2015 at 1:32

answered Nov 22, 2015 at 1:26

Xorifelse

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Comments

Maduro · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-22 03:19:01Z

0

And i would change

if(isset($_FILES['thefile'])){

for this

if($_FILE['thefile']['error'] === UPLOAD_ERR_OK){

Because I think that this is the best way to know if the user upload a file or the input is blank.

Or

if (isset($_FILE["thefile"]["name"])){

answered Nov 22, 2015 at 3:19

Maduro

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