# Could you help me debug this PHP?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/could-you-help-me-debug-this-php/35569>\
**Category:** programming\
**Created:** [November 15, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/could-you-help-me-debug-this-php/35569 "2003-11-15T12:23:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PaulD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/958977/32.png) [@PaulD](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/PaulD)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/could-you-help-me-debug-this-php/35569/1 "2003-11-15T12:23:27Z")

</div>

Hello Im a little new to debugging PHP.

Can anyone help me debug my PHP Counter script?

It works fine. I think it forgets to count sometimes…

```php

<?php //start PHP script
$COUNT_FILE = "count_data.txt"; //load this txt file as the count file

if (file_exists($COUNT_FILE)) { //if count file exists...
	$fp = fopen("$COUNT_FILE", "r+"); //open it
	flock($fp, 1); 
	$count = fgets($fp, 4096);
	$count += 1; //add 1
	fseek($fp,0); 
	fputs($fp, $count);
	flock($fp, 3);
	fclose($fp); 
$message="$count";
	echo "result=$message"; //display Counter result
} else {
$message="???";
	echo "result=$message"; //display Error result
}
?> //end php script

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/could-you-help-me-debug-this-php/35569/2 "2003-11-15T13:57:17Z")

</div>

```php
<?php //start PHP script
$COUNT_FILE = "count_data.txt"; //load this txt file as the count file

if (file_exists($COUNT_FILE)) //if count file exists...
{
    $fp = fopen("$COUNT_FILE", "r+"); //open it
    flock($fp, LOCK_EX); 
    $count = fgets($fp, 4096);
    $count += 1; //add 1
    fseek($fp,0); 
    fputs($fp, $count);
    flock($fp, LOCK_UN);
    fclose($fp); 
	$message="$count";
}
else 
{
	$message="???";
}

echo "result=$message"; //display Counter result
?>

```

It was apparently the locks that caused the problem 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/kirupa/original/3X/6/2/621e5c11736f46532526e61be85940af4230f3e5.png) [@system](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 15, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/could-you-help-me-debug-this-php/35569/3 "2003-11-15T14:25:54Z")

</div>

Wierd…thanks so much for making the right adjustments

I owe you one 🙂