symfony2 : failed to write cache directory

I have had to use the

app/console cache:clear  command

to solve a problem when generating an entity.

I am now unable to load my homepage on :

  http://localhost/projet_etienne/web/app_dev.php

it says :

RuntimeException: Failed to write cache file "/var/www/projet_etienne/app/cache/dev/classes.php".

I don't understand much about this cache business!

In my app/cache folder, I got a dev, a dev_new, a dev_old folder. Is that normal?

the

app/console cache:clear

generates by the way a :

[ErrorException] Warning: rename(/var/www/projet_etienne/app/cache/dev,/var/www/projet_etien
ne/app/cache/dev_old): Directory not empty in /var/www/projet_etienne/vendo
r/symfony/symfony/src/Symfony/Bundle/FrameworkBundle/Command/CacheClearComm
and.php line 77

please help!

For a GOOD and definite solution see the Setting up Permissions section in Installing and Configuring Symfony section :

Setting up Permissions

One common issue when installing Symfony is that the app/cache and app/logs directories must be writable both by the web server and the command line user. On a UNIX system, if your web server user is different from your command line user, you can try one of the following solutions.

1. Use the same user for the CLI and the web server

In development environments, it is a common practice to use the same UNIX user for the CLI and the web server because it avoids any of these permissions issues when setting up new projects. This can be done by editing your web server configuration (e.g. commonly httpd.conf or apache2.conf for Apache) and setting its user to be the same as your CLI user (e.g. for Apache, update the User and Group values).

2. Using ACL on a system that supports chmod +a

Many systems allow you to use the chmod +a command. Try this first, and if you get an error - try the next method. This uses a command to try to determine your web server user and set it as HTTPDUSER:

$ rm -rf app/cache/*
$ rm -rf app/logs/*

$ HTTPDUSER=`ps aux | grep -E '[a]pache|[h]ttpd|[_]www|[w]ww-data|[n]ginx' | grep -v root | head -1 | cut -d\  -f1`
$ sudo chmod +a "$HTTPDUSER allow delete,write,append,file_inherit,directory_inherit" app/cache app/logs
$ sudo chmod +a "`whoami` allow delete,write,append,file_inherit,directory_inherit" app/cache app/logs

3. Using ACL on a system that does not support chmod +a

Some systems don't support chmod +a, but do support another utility called setfacl. You may need to enable ACL support on your partition and install setfacl before using it (as is the case with Ubuntu). This uses a command to try to determine your web server user and set it as HTTPDUSER:

$ HTTPDUSER=`ps aux | grep -E '[a]pache|[h]ttpd|[_]www|[w]ww-data|[n]ginx' | grep -v root | head -1 | cut -d\  -f1`
$ sudo setfacl -R -m u:"$HTTPDUSER":rwX -m u:`whoami`:rwX app/cache app/logs
$ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:"$HTTPDUSER":rwX -m u:`whoami`:rwX app/cache app/logs

For Symfony 3 it would be:

$ HTTPDUSER=`ps aux | grep -E '[a]pache|[h]ttpd|[_]www|[w]ww-data|[n]ginx' | grep -v root | head -1 | cut -d\  -f1`
$ sudo setfacl -R -m u:"$HTTPDUSER":rwX -m u:`whoami`:rwX var/cache var/logs
$ sudo setfacl -dR -m u:"$HTTPDUSER":rwX -m u:`whoami`:rwX var/cache var/logs

If this doesn't work, try adding -n option.

4. Without using ACL

If none of the previous methods work for you, change the umask so that the cache and log directories will be group-writable or world-writable (depending if the web server user and the command line user are in the same group or not). To achieve this, put the following line at the beginning of the app/console, web/app.php and web/app_dev.php files:

umask(0002); // This will let the permissions be 0775

// or

umask(0000); // This will let the permissions be 0777

Note that using the ACL is recommended when you have access to them on your server because changing the umask is not thread-safe.

http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/installation.html#checking-symfony-application-configuration-and-setup

source : Failed to write cache file "/var/www/myapp/app/cache/dev/classes.php" when clearing the cache

Most likely it means that the directory and/or sub-directories are not writable. Many forget about sub-directories.

Symfony 2

chmod -R 777 app/cache app/logs

Symfony 3 directory structure

chmod -R 777 var/cache var/logs

Additional Resources

Permissions solution by Symfony (mentioned previously).

Permissions solution by KPN University - additionally includes an screen-cast on installation.

Note: If you're using Symfony 3 directory structure, substitute app/cache and app/logs with var/cache and var/logs.

If the folder is already writable so thats not the problem.

You can also just navigate to /www/projet_etienne/app/cache/ and manualy remove the folders in there (dev, dev_new, dev_old).

Make sure to SAVE a copy of those folder somewhere to put back if this doesn't fix the problem

I know this is not the way it should be done but it worked for me a couple of times now.