including a remote file in PHP

Solution 1:

To allow inclusion of remote files, the directive allow_url_include must be set to On in php.ini

But it is bad, in a security-oriented point of view ; and, so, it is generally disabled (I've never seen it enabled, actually)

It is not the same as allow_url_fopen, which deals with opening (and not including) remote files -- and this one is generally enabled, because it makes fetching of data through HTTP much easier (easier than using curl)

Solution 2:

To use remote includes, the allow_url_fopen and allow_url_include option must be set in php.ini

Be aware that if the remote server is php-enabled, you'll get the output of that remote script, not the script itself. If you do want to fetch the source, you could add a symlink on the remote server, e.g. ln -s file.php file.php.source and then make your include reference file.php.source instead.