Question

Alright, so I have a problem. I need to create a folder to store compiled templates in php. I have an install script that tries to mkdir() an appropriate directory (compiled_templates).

Invariably it returns this warning.

Warning: mkdir() [function.mkdir]: Permission denied in /home/tchalvak/sites/quotesite/quotes/install.php on line 92

Running changing the mode of the folder that the compiled_template folder will be created within also errors out on the same permissions problem.

Is there no way to assure that you can create what amounts to a storage folder via php? You have to use an outside-php program just to ensure that a folder is created? How do other php developers deal with this issue?

Edit: This is an installable script, so the overall objective is to allow 10 different random people to install the script on their server. This is why “making sure that php has all these great necessary write permissions to the compiled_templates directory” isn’t practical as a manual process, unfortunately.

Edit: Damn, same permission error when just trying to create a temp directory as well. Lame.

Answer 1

If it’s a temporary directory, create the directory in the system temp dir.

mkdir(sys_get_temp_dir() . 'example');

The general approach though is to simply ensure the user PHP is run as (e.g. apache) has write permissions where necessary.