PHP Reports failed when copy() but the file is actually copied

Question

I have the problem that when I try to copy some files from php I get the response that it failed, but the file is actually copied. This is a problem since I log an error message and exit the script when it fails but there are still plenty left for the script to do.

I've tried two different ways of copy:

if(!copy("/var/www/html/smicadmin.properties", "/etc/conf/".$new_dir."/smicadmin.properties"))

if(shell_exec("cp $src $dest")==null)

I have labeled 'conf' in order for SELinux to allow apache to write to it:

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_script_rw_t /etc/conf

Does anyone have any clue why this can happen and how to fix it?

Answer 1

and the answer:

shell_exec will return a string, the output of this program. If it return some "blablabla" and you compares to null it will be false.

use the function exec

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.exec.php

and compare the return_var with zero -- if success it will be equal to zero, other value in case of failure.