note 50975 added to function.symlink

Olszewski's method of creating downloadable links on the fly is pretty good. I use a different technique under Apache where if you want a file, you might use a url like: mydomain.com/files/mysecretfile.doc But in fact Apache redirects this to a script with a url like: mydomain.com/utilities/downloadfile.php?filename=mysecretfile.doc (The browser address bar will still show the first url). The script downloadfile.php can then handle all the mucky stuff like checking session variables to see if someone is logged on, whether they have access to mysecretfile.doc, and if you want to encrypt before download. An advantage of this is that the php code to achieve the equivalent of Olszewski's is shorter, so might execute faster. But more importantly, a casual hacker might think all he has to do is find myverysecurefile.doc under the /home/user/public_html/files/mysecretfile.doc, or copy the url - but there's nothing there! He won't find it or get an Apache error page. ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.symlink.php Edit -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=edit+50975 Delete: added to the manual -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+50975&report=yes&reason=added+to+the+manual Delete: bad code -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+50975&report=yes&reason=bad+code Delete: spam -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+50975&report=yes&reason=spam Delete: useless -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+50975&report=yes&reason=useless Delete: other reasons -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=delete+50975&report=yes Reject -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php?action=reject+50975&report=yes Search -- http://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php