file exists is failing

I am working my way through a new library call image crud, with the debugger. I see that this line 1 is failing:


$ext = pathinfo($view, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
$file = ($ext == '') ? $view.'.php' : $view;

$view_file = 'assets/image_crud/views/';
if (file_exists($view_file.$file))                                  <<<line 1
{
  $path = $view_file.$file;
  $file_exists = TRUE;
}

if ( ! $file_exists)
{
  throw new Exception('Unable to load the requested file: '.$file, 16);
}

Looking in the debugger I see that $view_file="assets/image_crud/views/".
I also see $file="list.php". 

I am not familiar with this syntax string.string . I can see the file path exists  on the hard drive but have no idea why this would fail.   I wonder if I am looking at the correct "assets" dir on the hard drive? The file I can see on the drive is /app/assets/image_crud/views/list.php. But notice that $view_file doesn't start with a "/". 

I also tried hard coding the path if (file_exists('assets/image_crud/views/list.php')) and this also fails. BTW, I am using Ubuntu and php 5.6. My code is in a Docker container. 

I also tried the full path of :
if (file_exists('/opt/docker-substantiator/app/assets/image_crud/views/list.php')) and this also fails. What am I missing here? 

proof that an old dog can learn new tricks

I am working my way through a new library call image crud, with the debugger. I see that this line 1 is failing:


$ext = pathinfo($view, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
$file = ($ext == '') ? $view.'.php' : $view;

$view_file = 'assets/image_crud/views/';
if (file_exists($view_file.$file))                                  <<<line 1
{
  $path = $view_file.$file;
  $file_exists = TRUE;
}

if ( ! $file_exists)
{
  throw new Exception('Unable to load the requested file: '.$file, 16);
}

Looking in the debugger I see that $view_file="assets/image_crud/views/".
I also see $file="list.php". 

I am not familiar with this syntax string.string . I can see the file path exists  on the hard drive but have no idea why this would fail.   I wonder if I am looking at the correct "assets" dir on the hard drive? The file I can see on the drive is /app/assets/image_crud/views/list.php. But notice that $view_file doesn't start with a "/". 

I also tried hard coding the path if (file_exists('assets/image_crud/views/list.php')) and this also fails. BTW, I am using Ubuntu and php 5.6. My code is in a Docker container. 

I also tried the full path of :
if (file_exists('/opt/docker-substantiator/app/assets/image_crud/views/list.php')) and this also fails. What am I missing here? 

---

Well this seems like a problem that many other php programmers have seen! Obviously, no one else up here. Here is a link where users recommend a few other ways to check if a file exists. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4253...sts-in-php

I will try these today. But I have one question. They seem to all show using a full url. My file is local. The examples show the use of http://localhost/ etc. I am trying to use a local path. I am concerned about this.

Secondly, I am using Docker. I can access my code directory from my code with the debugger. I am just not sure if my problem is related to Docker and the way I can reach places on the hard drive that are NOT in the container! Any Docker-heads out there in CI world?

proof that an old dog can learn new tricks

@richb201,

In order to try and eliminate relative paths I usually temporarily check to see the actual path used before calling file_exists(...);

Code:

echo getcwd(); exit;

Excellent idea. When I do this my cwd is /app. So I changed the code to if (file_exists("/assets/image_crud/views/list.php")), thinking that would check /app/assets/image_crud/views/list.php. That fails too! I saw a few recommendations on stackoverflow such as using getimagesize() or get_headers(). Both of these seem to use the full path http://localhost/etc, which really won't work for me when I am on my actual AWS server.

How about if I use the filesystem helper? I am using CI 3, btw. I tried using

$this->load->helper('filesystem');

and got:

Unable to load the requested file: helpers/filesystem_helper.php
I noticed that the _$SERVER[USER] is "daemon". But when I go to permissions for list.php, daemon is not one of the users I have a choice of giving access to. I am using ubuntu. Could this be the issue, and if so how do i add daemon to permissions? 

proof that an old dog can learn new tricks

I have pretty much narrowed the problem down to Docker and the way in which the CI application directory is loaded. I haven't figured out how to fix it yet. I order a book on Docker today from Amazon to see if I can figure out how to bind mount. Seems that this can only be done in the Dockerfile and I don't know where it is located. I just hope that the guy who configured Docker for me did this on my machine, not his.

proof that an old dog can learn new tricks