Trouble with sql-log.php permissions

[silverspr]

hello, installed adminer_5.2.1+dfsg-1_all.deb on ubuntu 24.04.

/etc/adminer/conf.php  redacted for brevity 
 `<?php`
 2
 3 define('ADMINER_DIR', '/usr/share/adminer');
 ...
14     $plugins = array(
15         // specify enabled plugins here
16         new AdminerVersionNoverify(), // disable phoning home
**21         new AdminerSqlLog(),**
22     );
23
 ...
33 include ADMINER_DIR . "/adminer.php";
34 `?>`

With the sql-log.php as above, receive permissions error;

[Wed Jan 14 20:27:09.874097 2026] [proxy_fcgi:error] AH01071: Got error 'PHP message: PHP Warning:  fopen(.sql): Failed to open stream: Permission denied in /usr/share/adminer/plugins/sql-log.php on line 31; PHP message: PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught TypeError: flock(): Argument #1 ($stream) must be of type resource, false given in /usr/share/adminer/plugins/sql-log.php:32
Stack trace:
#0 /usr/share/adminer/plugins/sql-log.php(32): flock()
#1 /usr/share/adminer/plugins/sql-log.php(24): AdminerSqlLog->log()
#2 [internal function]: AdminerSqlLog->sqlCommandQuery()
#3 /usr/share/adminer/adminer.php(1181): call_user_func_array()
#4 /usr/share/adminer/adminer.php(1537): Adminer\\Plugins->__call()
#5 /etc/adminer/conf.php(30): include('...')
#6 {main}
  thrown in /usr/share/adminer/plugins/sql-log.php on line 32'

not sure what permissions to change?? adminer works w/o sql-log enabled. Any help appreciated
thanks

[ismaildasci]

the error is because www-data (apache/php user) doesnt have permission to write to the log file.

adminer sql-log plugin tries to write to the current directory by default which www-data cant access.

fix:

1. create a log directory with proper permissions:

sudo mkdir -p /var/log/adminer
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/log/adminer
sudo chmod 755 /var/log/adminer

2. update the sql-log plugin config. edit /etc/adminer/conf.php:

new AdminerSqlLog("/var/log/adminer/sql.log")

instead of:

new AdminerSqlLog()

3. create the log file:

sudo touch /var/log/adminer/sql.log
sudo chown www-data:www-data /var/log/adminer/sql.log
sudo chmod 644 /var/log/adminer/sql.log

4. restart apache:

sudo systemctl restart apache2

alternatively, if you want to log per-session, you could use /tmp but thats less persistent:

new AdminerSqlLog("/tmp/adminer-" . session_id() . ".sql")

the key issue is that fopen(.sql) tries to open in current working directory which for php-fpm/apache is usually not writable.

[silverspr]

Yayyyyy, thank you, have it working again. Weird for the longest time the plugin worked writing to the same adminer directory folder.