(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
ftruncate — Truncates a file to a given length
$handle
, int $size
)
Takes the filepointer, handle, and truncates the file to
length, size.
handleThe file pointer.
Note:
The
handlemust be open for writing.
sizeThe size to truncate to.
Note:
If
sizeis larger than the file then the file is extended with null bytes.If
sizeis smaller than the file then the file is truncated to that size.
Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.
Example #1 File truncation example
<?php
$filename = 'lorem_ipsum.txt';
$handle = fopen($filename, 'r+');
ftruncate($handle, rand(1, filesize($filename)));
rewind($handle);
echo fread($handle, filesize($filename));
fclose($handle);
?>
Note:
The file pointer is not changed.
If you want to empty a file of it's contents bare in mind that opening a file in w mode truncates the file automatically, so instead of doing...
<?php
$fp = fopen("/tmp/file.txt", "r+");
ftruncate($fp, 0);
fclose($fp);
?>
You can just do...
<?php
$fp = fopen("/tmp/file.txt", "w");
fclose($fp);
?>
Writing after ftruncate
I didnt expect that I can write in the middle of nowhere. I thought that I would write at the beginning of the file but the first 4 bytes were filled automatically with NULLs followed by "56":
<?php
$str1 = 1234;
$str2 = 56;
$datei = "test.txt";
$dh = fopen($datei,"w");
fwrite($dh, $str1);
fclose($dh);
$dh = fopen ($datei,"r+");
echo "content: ".fread($dh, filesize($datei))."<br>";
echo "pointer after fread at: ".ftell($dh)."<br>";
ftruncate($dh, 0);
echo "pointer after truncate at: ".ftell($dh)."<br>";
fwrite($dh, $str2);
echo "pointer after fwrite at: ".ftell($dh)."<br>";
rewind($dh);
echo "pointer after rewind at: ".ftell($dh)."<br>";
$str = fread($dh, 6);
echo "content: $str<br>in ASCII: ";
for($i = 0; $i < 6; $i++)
echo ord($str{$i})."-";
fclose($dh);
/*
OUTPUT:
content: 1234
pointer after fread at: 4
pointer after truncate at: 4
pointer after fwrite at: 6
pointer after rewind at: 0
content: 56
in ASCII: 0-0-0-0-53-54
*/
?>
So not only ftruncate is filling an empty file up with NULLs as in the note before. Fread is filling leading space with NULLs too.
If you want to ftruncate but keep the end:
<?php
function ftruncatestart($filename,$maxfilesize){
$size=filesize($filename);
if ($size<$maxfilesize*1.0) return;
$maxfilesize=$maxfilesize*0.5; //we don't want to do it too often...
$fh=fopen($filename,"r+");
$start=ftell($fh);
fseek($fh,-$maxfilesize,SEEK_END);
$drop=fgets($fh);
$offset=ftell($fh);
for ($x=0;$x<$maxfilesize;$x++){
fseek($fh,$x+$offset);
$c=fgetc($fh);
fseek($fh,$x);
fwrite($fh,$c);
}
ftruncate($fh,$maxfilesize-strlen($drop));
fclose($fh);
}
?>
It will not just cut it but search for a newline so you avoid corrupting your csv or logfiles. But I don't know if you will stress the reading head of your drive. ;)
