What happens if you upload a random file and name it test.txt ?
Since it can't modify the php file, I guess it won't be able to modify the text.txt file either but maybe it's only because the php file is open by the same process.

I will check into write permissions for that folder. I don't see why a file in that folder can't write to the folder, but hey, I don't know anything about Windows servers at all.

Is there a way to go 'round the problem, hardcoding something or creating the file manually first?

Makes no sense that a php program can't create a file. Something is wrong there.
Only intelligent thing I can find about it is here:
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fopen.php#50601

Do you have some kind of security panel where you can give your account write permission to the /test/ directory?

Sorry, that didn't work. More errors this time. It's making GoDaddy look worse and worse.


Warning: fopen(D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\test.txt) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\default.php on line 9


Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\default.php on line 9


Warning: chmod() [function.chmod]: No such file or directory in D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\default.php on line 9


Warning: touch() [function.touch]: Unable to create file D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\test.txt because Permission denied in D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\default.php on line 11
0.00039196014404297 seconds


chrishajer, something's not right there, Windows must think you don't have access rights to write to the directory. Whatever Windows's equal to chmod has to be done.

According to php.net the chmod in php actually does do something on some windows setups.
So try replacing this line, like so:

$file=dirname(__FILE__)."/test.txt"; $h=fopen($file, "wb"); fclose($h); chmod($file, 0777 );

I needed to change the /test.txt to \\test.txt, but even once that was done, I get this error (prior to this, the filename and path were not right):


Warning: file_put_contents(D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\test.txt) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\default.php on line 9


Warning: touch() [function.touch]: Unable to create file D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\test.txt because Permission denied in D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\test\default.php on line 11
0.00028681755065918 seconds


<?php
/*
Experimental NFS detector - upload this file to server and chmod 777
Script should take less than one second to run.
If it takes more than one second, then it's likely NFS (or Windows or a bad configuration)
Any error means the time is unreliable as the script has failed.
*/
error_reporting(E_ALL);
$file=dirname(__FILE__)."/test.txt"; file_put_contents($file,'');
$time=strtok(microtime(),' ')+strtok('');
for ($i=0; $i<=9999; $i++) {if (touch($file)) {clearstatcache(); filemtime($file);} else {break;}}
echo ((strtok(microtime(),' ')+strtok(''))-$time)." seconds";
?>

I get this error there:

Warning: touch() [function.touch]: Utime failed: Permission denied in D:\Hosting\123456\html\godaddy\nfs.php on line 9
0.00044894218444824 seconds

This is a GoDaddy Windows hosting account.

I'll do some more digging over the weekend against some of the more popular hosts.

I want to see it run on godaddy though. That will be interesting. I'm sure I can find a good discount coupon code to get the first month very cheap so I'll give that a go if so.

Server 1

Operating system 	Linux
Kernel Version 	2.6.9-55.0.9.ELsmp
Apache version 	1.3.41 (Unix)
PERL version 	5.8.8
PHP version 	5.2.4
MySQL version 	5.0.67-community

Server 2

Operating system 	Linux
Kernel Version 	2.6.9-67.0.4.ELsmp
Apache version 	1.3.37 (Unix)
PERL version 	5.8.8
PHP version 	5.2.1
MySQL version 	5.0.51a-community

Your linux desktop is why it is so fast.

So my theory is right, under 1 second is excellent, around 1 second is good.
Anything much higher is suspect.

But I need more NFS candidates, will have to see if I have access on some of these old servers.

Let's see if I can run it on NearlyFreeSpeech.
Aha! They are NFS. 13.26 seconds

For those that get an error even when the file is chmod 777, you'll have to create a testing directory and move the file into there. Then chmod 777 the directory and change the first line to
error_reporting(E_ALL); $file=dirname(__FILE__)."/test.txt"; file_put_contents($file,''); $time=strtok(microtime(),' ')+strtok('');

On the root server at 1&1, let's see:

The 0.129 result is this: 1&1 Root Server II (not available any more, it's an old account)
The 0.118 result is this: 1&1 Business I Server

Their VPS offerings are something else. Not really sure what these are.

I just checked another 1&1 account I manage, another Business I Server, I got 0.199 for the first result and a consistent 0.165 for the next 10 in a row.

Hope that helps.

I think it would be cool if you extended into a host evaluation tool. But how would someone run it on the host before they have an account there?

When you say "1&1 root server" is that a dedicated or vps or something like that?

Interesting your desktop is very fast compared to mine, is it Windows or Linux? If it's Windows, is it NTFS or FAT32? I wonder what my windows bottleneck is, or maybe basically it just doesn't cache the filetables on FAT32.

I should enhance that code to show if the server is in safemode or not and what functions are disabled in PHP. Could be a handy tool for evaluating potential hosts.

1&1 root server:
PHP5: average 0.129

Another 1&1 root server:
PHP5: average 0.118

My 2 year old desktop (local SATA drive, 1GB RAM):
PHP5: average 0.265

Server 1 (my personal site) - average of 0.81909894943 seconds
Server 2 (my busy site) - average of 1.08337402344 seconds

These are on identical Apache servers (actually, server 2 has more memory, but the specs are the same for the servers). Same version of Apache, PHP, SQL etc. Server 2, however, is always slow and pegging the CPU. Even when I turn off WordPress (which my isp blamed at one point) I'm hammering the hell out of the poor box.

Dreamhost takes over 7 seconds, sometimes more.
My apache servers with local storage take less than one second.
My Windows XP with XAMPP takes 12 seconds (old slow IDE drives)

<?php
/*
Experimental NFS detector - upload this file to server and chmod 777
Script should take less than one second to run.
If it takes more than one second, then it's likely NFS (or Windows or a bad configuration)
Any error means the time is unreliable as the script has failed.
*/
error_reporting(E_ALL); $file=__FILE__; $time=strtok(microtime(),' ')+strtok('');
for ($i=0; $i<=9999; $i++) {if (touch($file)) {clearstatcache(); filemtime($file);} else {break;}}
echo ((strtok(microtime(),' ')+strtok(''))-$time)." seconds";
?>

Talking about this, it reminds me about what godaddy did to my friend 6 months ago. her hosting acc was completely expired and everything lost. when she asked for the backup godaddy charged from her 170$US.

The problem that her acc expired is that godaddy failed to automatically renew the acc. and even she did it manually but still could not. she and i thought that it was a problem with Visa card. i suggested her send an email to godaddy not to delete her acc as she had problem with her card. she also was subscribing new card.

After getting new card, she did the renew again but still failed. finally, the hosting expired.

Then she tried to buy new hosting by using the same card. yes, she succeeded. Strange? anyway, it was her fault that she didn't do the back up.

But you can tell if you have an account with them by studying df -a though the shell, php shell or perl cgi shell. Or if they hide/block all that you can write a script to time 1000 reads of filemtime (with clearstatcache) which cannot be cached by the OS and will have telltail lag.

Marketing-wise NFS is usually spun as "unlimited" or "expanding" storage space, like Dreamhost promises extra space each month.

I'm very curious to find out what the "resolution" was.
The latest page show shows 1.432 - 36 queries which is still poor.

Thanks,

Alicia R.
Go Daddy Hosting

Make sure your bb-topic-views plugin is the latest version (1.6.3)
The old version before I took over used excessive queries.

If you are using an earlier 1.0 alpha version, it also had excessive queries (still does on the newest version in some places).

Before you run to hostmonster or other provider, make sure you do your homework and check those suggestions I gave you.

Oh one more tip for choosing a hosting provider - if they use the word "unlimited" in any of their advertising, find another provider.