octobercms/october · error · ApplicationException

cms::lang.lang.error_deleting_file

Error message

cms::lang.lang.error_deleting_file

What it means

ApplicationException thrown by `Lang::delete()` when `File::delete($fullPath)` fails although the file exists: PHP could not unlink it. Almost always a permissions problem — no write/execute permission on the containing directory or the file is owned by a different user than the web server.

Source

Thrown at modules/cms/classes/Lang.php:315

     * delete the object from disk
     */
    public function delete()
    {
        $fullPath = $this->getFilePath();

        $this->validateFileName();

        if (!FileHelper::validateInTheme($this->theme, $fullPath)) {
            throw new ValidationException(['fileName' =>
                LangHelper::get('cms::lang.cms_object.invalid_file', [
                    'name' => $this->fileName
                ])
            ]);
        }

        if (File::exists($fullPath)) {
            if (!@File::delete($fullPath)) {
                throw new ApplicationException(LangHelper::get(
                    'cms::lang.lang.error_deleting_file',
                    ['name' => $this->fileName]
                ));
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * validateFileName supplied with extension and path.
     */
    protected function validateFileName($fileName = null)
    {
        if ($fileName === null) {
            $fileName = $this->fileName;
        }

        $fileName = trim($fileName);

View on GitHub (pinned to b608633a7e)

Solutions

  1. Fix ownership of the file and its directory: `chown -R www-data:www-data themes/<theme>/lang`.
  2. Ensure the directory itself is writable by the web server (unlink permission lives on the directory, not the file).
  3. As a last resort delete the file manually over SSH, then retry the UI operation.

Example fix

# before — directory owned by root; unlink denied
$ ls -ld themes/mytheme/lang
drwxr-xr-x root root themes/mytheme/lang

# after — unlink permission is on the directory
sudo chown www-data:www-data themes/mytheme/lang
sudo chmod u+rwx themes/mytheme/lang
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

$path = $lang->getFilePath();
if (file_exists($path) && (!is_writable($path) || !is_writable(dirname($path)))) {
    return back()->with('error', 'File or directory is not writable — fix ownership before deleting.');
}
$lang->delete();

Try / catch

try {
    $lang->delete();
} catch (ApplicationException $e) {
    // unlink failed: report which path and its perms for quick ops triage
    Log::error('Lang delete failed', ['path' => $lang->getFilePath(), 'perms' => @fileperms($lang->getFilePath())]);
    throw $e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Deleting a lang file created by a root CLI session so www-data cannot unlink it; directory without write permission for the PHP user; file held open / immutable flag set on some filesystems.

Common situations: Mixed CLI/web file ownership after deploys; hardened production dirs; containers where the volume is mounted read-only.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of octobercms/october@b608633a7e (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ce33fef425ac5042. Report an issue: GitHub.