Flat File Counter in PHP

This script is a simple file based counter. This is meant for sites that do not run a db and instead, use a file and a cookie. It isn't the best I've seen but it's simple. Consider this as a tutorial.

Just create a file called counter.txt and put this where you want to display the counter.

Remember to set the permissions on counter.txt so that your webserver can write to the file, CHMODing to 666 would be good enough.

PHP:

<?
   $visitor_ip = $_COOKIE["user_ip"];
   $counter = "counter.txt";
   $counter_file_line = file($counter);
   
   if(!$vistor_ip)
   {
   setcookie("user_ip", $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'], time()+360000);
   $counter_file_line[0]++;
   $cf = fopen($counter, "w+");
   fputs($cf, "$counter_file_line[0]");
   fclose($cf);
   }
   elseif($vistor_ip != $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])
   {
   $counter_file_line[0]++;
   $cf = fopen($counter, "w+");
   fputs($cf, "$counter_file_line[0]");
   fclose($cf);
   }
   ?>