PHP include relative path

I have file /root/update/test.php. There's also a file, /root/connect.php; This file has a line

include "../config.php";

In /root/update/test.php. There's the code

set_include_path(".:/root");
include "connect.php";

When I run /root/update/test.php, it finds connect.php, but fails to find config.php, giving me

PHP Warning:  include(../config.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /root/connect.php on line 2
PHP Warning:  include(): Failed opening '../config.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/root')

This is confusing to me because the warnings make it seem like I'm doing everything correctly - the include path is /root, and it's looking for file ../config.php (/config.php), which exists. Can someone clear this up for me? Note that using absolute paths is not an option for me, due to deploying to a production server that I have no access to.

Ubuntu/Apache

Solution 1:

You could always include it using __DIR__:

include(dirname(__DIR__).'/config.php');

__DIR__ is a 'magical constant' and returns the directory of the current file without the trailing slash. It's actually an absolute path, you just have to concatenate the file name to __DIR__. In this case, as we need to ascend a directory we use PHP's dirname which ascends the file tree, and from here we can access config.php.

You could set the root path in this method too:

define('ROOT_PATH', dirname(__DIR__) . '/');

in test.php would set your root to be at the /root/ level.

include(ROOT_PATH.'config.php');

Should then work to include the config file from where you want.

Solution 2:

While I appreciate you believe absolute paths is not an option, it is a better option than relative paths and updating the PHP include path.

Use absolute paths with an constant you can set based on environment.

if (is_production()) {
    define('ROOT_PATH', '/some/production/path');
}
else {
    define('ROOT_PATH', '/root');
}

include ROOT_PATH . '/connect.php';

As commented, ROOT_PATH could also be derived from the current path, $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'], etc.

Solution 3:

function relativepath($to){
    $a=explode("/",$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"] );
    $index= array_search("$to",$a);
    $str=""; 
    for ($i = 0; $i < count($a)-$index-2; $i++) {
        $str.= "../";
    }
    return $str;
    }

Here is the best solution i made about that, you just need to specify at which level you want to stop, but the problem is that you have to use this folder name one time.

PHP include relative path

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

Solution 3:

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