fs.open troubles.

Hello, I'm having a little bit of trouble with a program of mine. It says that I have a nil value at line 11 (marked line). I can't quite figure out the problem with it, as it works when I have the path (in line 10) at "disk/install", but not "disk/install/key". Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

  key = math.random(1000,9999).."-"..math.random(1000,9999)
    keyfile = fs.open("disk/install/key", "w")
keyfile.write(pdkey) --This line, but I believe it has to do with the line above it.
    keyfile.close()
installPrograms()

Sounds like the file doesn't exist in directory disk/installer/key

Whole code? pdkey is nil, or the files is not there

Well, it was my belief that fs.open would also make the file, as it seems to in another program I use, which this is essentially copied from. Then again, it's only two long as well. I bet it's then that the file isn't there, as you said. How would I go about creating it so I could make it open it for writing?

I realized I don't need to do this for this program, but it would be great for future use, should I ever need it.

Also, I realized that I had pdkey instead of key for the variable, got into the habit of using that since I was working on something else with the pdkey variable right before. xD I changed that to just "key" and it still marks it as nil. Change listed below:

  key = math.random(1000,9999).."-"..math.random(1000,9999)
    keyfile = fs.open("disk/install/key", "w")
keyfile.write(key) --This line, but I believe it has to do with the line above it.
    keyfile.close()
installPrograms()

Use this function:

function exists(filename)
    return (io.open(filename) == nil and false or true) -- can be shortened to (io.open(filename) == nil)
end

mad, on 15 October 2012 - 08:22 PM said:

Use this function:

function exists(filename)
	return (io.open(filename) == nil and false or true) -- can be shortened to (io.open(filename) == nil)
end

io.open(fileName) does the same thing and more than this. io.open() returns nil, <error> when unsuccessful. No need to add more overhead.

So basically, that would allow me to use exists("disk/installdisk/key") and it would create it for me and get rid of the nil error? What confuses me is that it's basically what I have in my code, just in a separate function.

Opening a file handle for writing will create the file, but not any directories. Ensure the directory you're trying to write the file to exists first.

Well, it's writing to the disk, so I would assume the disk directory exists. ._. Which is why it confuses me. Unless the 'installdisk' after 'disk' is actually the directory, in which case that doesn't exist. I'll try that I guess.