PHP: Error Messages Explained

Error Messages Explained

PHP returns an appropriate error code along with the file array. The error code can be found in the error segment of the file array that is created during the file upload by PHP. In other words, the error might be found in $_FILES['userfile']['error'].

UPLOAD_ERR_OK: Value: 0; There is no error, the file uploaded with success.
UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE: Value: 1; The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.
UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE: Value: 2; The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form.
UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL: Value: 3; The uploaded file was only partially uploaded.
UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE: Value: 4; No file was uploaded.
UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR: Value: 6; Missing a temporary folder.
UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE: Value: 7; Failed to write file to disk.
UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION: Value: 8; A PHP extension stopped the file upload. PHP does not provide a way to ascertain which extension caused the file upload to stop; examining the list of loaded extensions with phpinfo() may help.

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User Contributed Notes 19 notes

down

232

Viktor ¶

9 years ago

Update to Adams old comment.

This is probably useful to someone.

<?php

$phpFileUploadErrors = array(
0 => 'There is no error, the file uploaded with success',
1 => 'The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini',
2 => 'The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form',
3 => 'The uploaded file was only partially uploaded',
4 => 'No file was uploaded',
6 => 'Missing a temporary folder',
7 => 'Failed to write file to disk.',
8 => 'A PHP extension stopped the file upload.',
);

down

174

Anonymous ¶

15 years ago

[EDIT BY danbrown AT php DOT net: This code is a fixed version of a note originally submitted by (Thalent, Michiel Thalen) on 04-Mar-2009.]



This is a handy exception to use when handling upload errors:


<?php


class UploadException extends Exception

{

    public function __construct($code) {

$message = $this->codeToMessage($code);

parent::__construct($message, $code);

    }


    private function codeToMessage($code)

    {

        switch ($code) {

            case UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE:

$message = "The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini";

                break;

            case UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE:

$message = "The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form";

                break;

            case UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL:

$message = "The uploaded file was only partially uploaded";

                break;

            case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE:

$message = "No file was uploaded";

                break;

            case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR:

$message = "Missing a temporary folder";

                break;

            case UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE:

$message = "Failed to write file to disk";

                break;

            case UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION:

$message = "File upload stopped by extension";

                break;


            default:

$message = "Unknown upload error";

                break;

        }

        return $message;

    }

}


// Use

if ($_FILES['file']['error'] === UPLOAD_ERR_OK) {

//uploading successfully done

} else {

throw new UploadException($_FILES['file']['error']);

}

?>

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adam at gotlinux dot us ¶

19 years ago

This is probably useful to someone.


<?php

array(

0=>"There is no error, the file uploaded with success", 

1=>"The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini", 

2=>"The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form"

3=>"The uploaded file was only partially uploaded",

4=>"No file was uploaded",

6=>"Missing a temporary folder" 

);

?>

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stephen at poppymedia dot co dot uk ¶

18 years ago

if post is greater than post_max_size set in php.ini


$_FILES and $_POST will return empty

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Sohaib Essam ¶

1 year ago

switch ($_FILES["image"]["error"]) {
        case UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL:
            exit('File only partially uploaded');
            break;
        case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE:
            exit('No file was uploaded');
            break;
        case UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION:
            exit('File upload stopped by a PHP extension');
            break;
        case UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE:
            exit('File exceeds MAX_FILE_SIZE in the HTML form');
            break;
        case UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE:
            exit('File exceeds upload_max_filesize in php.ini');
            break;
        case UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR:
            exit('Temporary folder not found');
            break;
        case UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE:
            exit('Failed to write file');
            break;
        default:
            exit('Unknown upload error');
            break;
    }

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svenr at selfhtml dot org ¶

17 years ago

Clarification on the MAX_FILE_SIZE hidden form field and the UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE error code:

PHP has the somewhat strange feature of checking multiple "maximum file sizes".

The two widely known limits are the php.ini settings "post_max_size" and "upload_max_size", which in combination impose a hard limit on the maximum amount of data that can be received.

In addition to this PHP somehow got implemented a soft limit feature. It checks the existance of a form field names "max_file_size" (upper case is also OK), which should contain an integer with the maximum number of bytes allowed. If the uploaded file is bigger than the integer in this field, PHP disallows this upload and presents an error code in the $_FILES-Array.

The PHP documentation also makes (or made - see bug #40387 - http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=40387) vague references to "allows browsers to check the file size before uploading". This, however, is not true and has never been. Up til today there has never been a RFC proposing the usage of such named form field, nor has there been a browser actually checking its existance or content, or preventing anything. The PHP documentation implies that a browser may alert the user that his upload is too big - this is simply wrong.

Please note that using this PHP feature is not a good idea. A form field can easily be changed by the client. If you have to check the size of a file, do it conventionally within your script, using a script-defined integer, not an arbitrary number you got from the HTTP client (which always must be mistrusted from a security standpoint).

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roland at REMOVE_ME dot mxchange dot org ¶

6 years ago

I have expanded @adam at gotlinux dot us's example a bit with proper UPLOAD_FOO constants and gettext support. Also UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION is added (was missing in his version). Hope this helps someone.

<?php
class Some {
/**
     * Upload error codes
     * @var array
     */
private static $upload_errors = [];

    public function __construct() {
// Init upload errors
self::$upload_errors = [
UPLOAD_ERR_OK => _('There is no error, the file uploaded with success.'),
UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE => _('The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.'),
UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE => _('The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form.'),
UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL => _('The uploaded file was only partially uploaded.'),
UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE => _('No file was uploaded.'),
UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR => _('Missing a temporary folder.'),
UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE => _('Cannot write to target directory. Please fix CHMOD.'),
UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION => _('A PHP extension stopped the file upload.'),
        ];
    }
}
?>

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jille at quis dot cx ¶

15 years ago

UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL is given when the mime boundary is not found after the file data. A possibly cause for this is that the upload was cancelled by the user (pressed ESC, etc).

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jalcort at att dot net ¶

4 years ago

When uploading a file, it is common to visit the php.ini and set up upload_tmp_dir = /temp but in the case of some web hostess as fatcow you need to direct not only /tmp but upload_tmp_dir = /hermes/walnaweb13a/b345/moo.youruser/tmp

If not the $_FILES show you an error #6 "Missing a temporary folder

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sysadmin at cs dot fit dot edu ¶

19 years ago

I noticed that on PHP-4.3.2 that $_FILES can also not be set if the file uploaded exceeds the limits set by upload-max-filesize in the php.ini, rather than setting error $_FILES["file"]["error"]

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Jeff Miner mrjminer AT gmail DOT com ¶

14 years ago

One thing that is annoying is that the way these constant values are handled requires processing no error with the equality, which wastes a little bit of space.  Even though "no error" is 0, which typically evaluates to "false" in an if statement, it will always evaluate to true in this context.


So, instead of this:

-----

<?php

if($_FILES['userfile']['error']) {

// handle the error

} else {

// process

}

?>

-----

You have to do this:

-----

<?php

if($_FILES['userfile']['error']==0) {

// process

} else {

// handle the error

}

?>

-----

Also, ctype_digit fails, but is_int works.  If you're wondering... no, it doesn't make any sense.


To Schoschie:


You ask the question:  Why make stuff complicated when you can make it easy?  I ask the same question since the version of the code you / Anonymous / Thalent (per danbrown) have posted is unnecessary overhead and would result in a function call, as well as a potentially lengthy switch statement.  In a loop, that would be deadly... try this instead:


-----

<?php

$error_types = array(

1=>'The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini.',

'The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form.',

'The uploaded file was only partially uploaded.',

'No file was uploaded.',

6=>'Missing a temporary folder.',

'Failed to write file to disk.',

'A PHP extension stopped the file upload.'

);


// Outside a loop...

if($_FILES['userfile']['error']==0) {

// process

} else {

$error_message = $error_types[$_FILES['userfile']['error']];

// do whatever with the error message

}


// In a loop...

for($x=0,$y=count($_FILES['userfile']['error']);$x<$y;++$x) {

  if($_FILES['userfile']['error'][$x]==0) {

// process

} else {

$error_message = $error_types[$_FILES['userfile']['error'][$x]];

// Do whatever with the error message

}

}


// When you're done... if you aren't doing all of this in a function that's about to end / complete all the processing and want to reclaim the memory

unset($error_types);

?>

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tyler at fishmas dot org ¶

19 years ago

In regards to the dud filename being sent, a very simple way to check for this is to check the file size as well as the file name.  For example, to check the file size simple use the size attribute in your file info array:


<?php

if($_FILES["file_id"]["size"]  == 0)

{

// ...PROCESS ERROR

}

?>

down

Tom ¶

14 years ago

Note: something that might surprise you, PHP also provides a value in the $_FILES array, if the input element has no value at all, stating an error UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE.

So UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE is not an error, but a note that the input element just had no value. Thus you can't rely on the $_FILES array to see if a file was provided. Instead you have to walk the array and check every single damn entry - which can be quite difficult since the values may be nested if you use input elements named like "foo[bar][bla]".

Seems like PHP just introduced you to yet another common pitfall.

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admin at compumatter dot com ¶

4 years ago

We use this function to handle file uploads.

Since $_FILES allows for more than a single file, this loops through each file and if there's an error, it is displayed in human readable language to the error log and then returned / exited.  You can adjust that to echo's if preferred:

function file_upload_test($messageBefore="CM FILE UPLOAD MESSAGE"){
    global $_FILES;
    # a single file limit
    $upload_max_size = ini_get('upload_max_filesize');
    # the combination of a batch o multiple files
    $post_max_size = ini_get('post_max_size');
    # array of possible fails which are retuned below in if $key=error section
    $phpFileUploadErrors = array(
        0 => 'There is no error, the file uploaded with success',
        1 => 'Exceeds php.ini upload_max_filesize of '.$upload_max_size.'MB',
        2 => 'The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form',
        3 => 'The uploaded file was only partially uploaded',
        4 => 'No file was uploaded',
        6 => 'Missing a temporary folder',
        7 => 'Failed to write file to disk.',
        8 => 'A PHP extension stopped the file upload.',
    );

    error_log("========================================");
    error_log("$messageBefore");
    error_log("========================================");
    foreach ($_FILES['cmmediabrowsedfor'] as $key => $value) {
       ${$key}=$value;
       error_log('$_FILES ['.$key.'] = ['.$value.']');
       if(is_array($value)){
            foreach ($value as $key2 => $value2) {
                error_log('   >   $_FILES ['.$key.']['.$key2.'] = '.$value2);
                if($key=='error'){
                     error_log('   ******* CM Failed Upload: '.$phpFileUploadErrors[$value2]);
                     error_log('           Exit / Return in plugins/cm-alpha/php/images/img-create-tmp.php');
                     error_log(' ');
                     exit;
                }
            }
       }
    }
    if(!file_exists($_FILES["cmmediabrowsedfor"]["tmp_name"][0]) || !is_uploaded_file($_FILES["cmmediabrowsedfor"]["tmp_name"][0])) {
        error_log("NO FILE GOT UPLOADED ");
    } else {
        error_log("SUCCESS FILE GOT UPLOADED ");
    }
}

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belowtherim2000 at yahoo dot com ¶

17 years ago

I've been playing around with the file size limits and with respect to the post_max_size setting, there appears to be a hard limit of 2047M.  Any number that you specify above that results in a failed upload without any informative error describing what went wrong.  This happens regardless of how small the file you're uploading may be.  On error, my page attempts to output the name of the original file.  But what I discovered is that this original file name, which I maintained in a local variable, actually gets corrupted.  Even my attempt to output the error code in $_FILES['uploadedfiles']['error'] returns an empty string/value.

Hopefully, this tidbit will save someone else some grief.

down

-1

rlerne at gmail dot com ¶

9 years ago

This updates "adam at gotlinux dot us" above and makes it version aware, and also adds newer constants to the array.

The reason we want to check the version is that the constants are not defined in earlier versions, and they appear later in the array. They would effectively overwrite the "0" index (no error) with an error message when the file actually uploaded fine.

It also drops the constant's value (0,1,2, etc) for the errors, in the likely event that they are changed later (the code should still work fine).

<?php

$upload_errors = array(
0                        => "There is no error, the file uploaded with success"
,UPLOAD_ERR_INI_SIZE    => "The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini"
,UPLOAD_ERR_FORM_SIZE    => "The uploaded file exceeds the MAX_FILE_SIZE directive that was specified in the HTML form"
,UPLOAD_ERR_PARTIAL        => "The uploaded file was only partially uploaded"
,UPLOAD_ERR_NO_FILE        => "No file was uploaded"
);

if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.0.3') >= 0)
$upload_errors[UPLOAD_ERR_NO_TMP_DIR] = "Missing a temporary folder";

if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.1.0') >= 0)
$upload_errors[UPLOAD_ERR_CANT_WRITE] = "Failed to write to disk";

if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '5.2.0') >= 0)
$upload_errors[UPLOAD_ERR_EXTENSION] = "File upload stopped by extension";
?>

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-4

viseth10 at gmail dot com ¶

7 years ago

[Well just a little note. ]
That UploadException class example posted on top by anonymous is great. It works good. But there is a certain problem. You know there are two sides to generating errors. 
First -> for the client side.
Second -> for the developers who will use your script

But i see only one side to generating Exceptions. ie For the developers.

Why ? Because when you generate an Exception, your script will come to an halt and do whatever you have defined in catch clause.
Now you dont want any client to see the Exception, do you ? I will not. The client will want to know what error occured in simple words they can understand instead of wanting their web app crashed if upload fails. So,  dont generate exceptions. These errors should be collected and shown to client in an elegant way. That's a little advice.
Keep developing smarter.

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-4

krissv at ifi.uio.no ¶

19 years ago

When $_FILES etc is empty like Dub spencer says in the note at the top and the error is not set, that might be because the form enctype isnt sat correctly. then nothing more than maybe a http server error happens.

enctype="multipart/form-data" works fine

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-4

roger dot vermeir at nokia dot com ¶

5 years ago

Just found out that it is very important to define the
input type="hidden" name="MAX_FILE_SIZE" value=...
AFTER defining the input type="FILE" name=...
in your html/php.
If you swap them around, you will keep getting the filesize exceeded (error 2)!
Hope this helps.
Roger

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