CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpfile
Sheena
Sheena

Reputation: 16212

php: check if a file is open

I'm writing a document managment system. One of the features that has been requested is that users be able to cause the system to copy certain files to a location that both the users and php have access to. From here the user will be able to directly edit the files. What needs to happen is that the edited file must be automatically saved to the document management system as a new version. My question is with regards to this last point.

I have a page that allows the user to view all versions of a specific file. I was thinking that what would be cool would be to have things that when this page is accessed by anyone then php checks if there is an associated file that was edited and is now closed and simply move it to the right place and give it version info. Would this be possible? For example if a user is editing a file using MS Word, would php be able to know if that file is in use? If yes, how?

Another alternative is to just grab all files that were edited periodically (during the witching hour, for example) and also have a handy 'synchronise' button that users can click to signal that they are done.

here's some stuff I've tried: flock: i thought it mich return false for files that are in use. mistaken fstat: doesn't return anything useful as far as I can tell unlink: I thought I might make a copy of the file then try unlink the original(user edited one). it turns out unlink works on stuff that is open

any ideas?

Also, it needs to work on windows and linux...

Here's some clarification for them what need: if andrew were to click the 'edit' button corresponding to a word file then the word file would be copied to some location. Andrew would then edit it using MS word, save his changes (possible more than once) and close it. That is all I want Andrew to do. I want my code to see that the file is closed then do stuff with it

Upvotes: 1

Views: 7965

Answers (2)

ke20
ke20

Reputation: 665

You can create a file "filename.lock" (or "filename.lck") for each file open. And you delete the file "filename.lock" (or "filename.lck") when is unlock.

And you can check if file is locked when the file "filename.lock" (or "filename.lck") exists.

Upvotes: 3

DonCallisto
DonCallisto

Reputation: 29912

If you're running under unix OS, you can implement a strategy like that:

  1. Write a bash script like this lsof | grep /absolute/path/to/file.txt

    You can also parameterize that

  2. Recall that script from php

<?php $result=shell_exec("myScriptPath"); echo($result); ?>

Remember that bash script will return status 0 if no one has file open, 256 (1) otherwise

Upvotes: 2

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