fputs / fwrites

Okay, so I want to open a file, get a small number from it (less than 3 digits) then overwrite a new number (incremented the original by 1) and close the file. The goal is to do this in the fastest way possible .. it seems that there should be a way of doing this without having to open and close the file twice. I've tried: $cfile = fopen("lcnt.txt", 'r+'); $lcnt = fgets($cfile,10); This results in $lcnt having a value of 1 (loaded from value within text file) Now, if I increment it: $nc = $lcnt+1; then write it back to the file: $nul = fwrite($cfile, $nc); It writes starting at where the last read left off -- I want to start at zero offset so to overwrite the existing value. I can't find a method for resetting the offset pointer without having to close the file and reopen it with w+ There must be a simpler way to do this ...