DevShed has a new tutorial posted today with a look at one of the more common tasks performed with PHP (second to generating web pages, of course) - working with files. It can be a little tricky for a budding PHP programmer, but they've got the info you need to get started.

Reading and writing to files can be useful if you do not require the storing of important data, such as a web counter. I must warn you though, that this method of storage should not be used to store passwords and other critical information, as it is not safe. Here we will discuss how to handle files and directories in PHP, specifically, how to create, read and write them.

They start off with a look at file permissions on both Unix and Windows systems ot give you an idea of what problems they could cause. Then, it's on to the actual files themselves - for this part, though, they only look at reading them in and working with their contents.