How to require PHP files relatively (at different directory levels)?
For relative paths you can use __DIR__ directly rather than dirname(__FILE__) (as long as you are using PHP 5.3.0 and above):
require(__DIR__.'/../../dir2/file3.php');
Remember to add the additional forward slash at the beginning of the path within quotes.
See:
- PHP - with require_once/include/require, the path is relative to what?
- PHP - Relative paths "require"
Try adding dirname(__FILE__) before the path, like:
require(dirname(__FILE__).'/../../dir2/file3.php');
It should include the file starting from the root directory
A viable recommendation is to avoid "../../" relative paths in your php web apps. It's hard to read and terrible for maintenance.
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As you can attest. It makes it extremely difficult to know what you are pointing to.
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If you need to change the folder level of your application, or parts of it. It's completely prone to errors, and will likely break something that is horrible to debug.
Instead, a preferred pattern would be to define a few constants in your bootstrap file for your main path(s) and then use:
require(MY_DIR.'/dir1/dir2/file3.php');
Moving your app from there, is as easy as replacing your MY_DIR constants in one single file.
If you must keep it relative. At a minimum, construct an absolute path based on a relative path reference, like the accepted response suggest. However also strongly keep in mind the importance of naming your ../ anonymous intermediate paths, as a means to remove confusion or ambiguity.