Question

First issue, where is it suppose to be?

Accordint to php.net

Files will, by default be stored in the server’s default temporary
directory, unless another location has been given with the
upload_tmp_dir directive in php.ini. The server’s default directory
can be changed by setting the environment variable TMPDIR in the
environment in which PHP runs

So I go to my php.ini file and find

upload_tmp_dir = "\xampplite\tmp"

And let me go ahead and post by xhtml code:

          <div class="t2_c2">
            <form name="f9" enctype="multipart/form-data" action="pi5.php" method="POST">
            <input type="hidden" name="MAX_FILE_SIZE" value="100000" />
            <input name="ufile" type="file" class="te7" />
            </form>
          </div>

This is a form inside a column, inside a table.

And last but not least the javascript that submits this form.

document.f9.submit();

Because there is alot of files non of which appear to be my file in the temp directory I add some debug php code to look at the $_FILES super global associative array.

The code

print_r($_FILES['ufile']);

returns this info.

Array ( [name] => c0.css [type] => text/css [tmp_name] =>
F:\xampplite\tmp\php317C.tmp [error] => 0 [size] => 10652 ) The file
c0.css

on a second run in produces

Array ( [name] => here.gif [type] => image/gif [tmp_name] =>
C:\Users\a\AppData\Local\Temp\phpC256.tmp [error] => 0 [size] => 8549
)

which I find odd, that this is not specified in the php.ini file and proves php.net documentation invalid.

Life is lookin good until I go to the [tmp_name] and find this:

No file.

My plan was to change my php.ini file so that the file is downloaded directly to where I want it, but according the answers below, the file only lasts as long as the php script is running, so this does not appear to be an option or at minimal a simple option. That was why I did not use the move function at first.

Answer 1

The tmp_name is only valid for the lifetime of the PHP script execution, after which the file is cleaned up. You need to move_uploaded_file() to a permanent location in the same script execution for it to persist.