How to write the path in php fopen?

Question

I have some problems with the relative and absolute paths in php fopen. I have the following directories:

project:
    scripts:
        myscript.php
    logs:
        mylog.log

I want to open mylog.log from myscript.php and I don't know how to specify the path. I tried

fopen('../logs/mylog.log', "a")

but it won't work. Thanks.

LE: Thanks for you answers.

There is no "it does not work", there might be error messages instead. — str, Mar 16 '13 at 15:20
Is it returning an error? The error should reflect the resolved path being accessed. Also, check permissions. — Anthony, Mar 16 '13 at 15:20
@str - Are you kidding? I've gotten a *TON* of doesn't works. — Anthony, Mar 16 '13 at 15:21

score 39 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 16 '13 at 15:21

39

In php, there are a couple of global constants that could be of help to you. Namely, __DIR__ gives you the directory of the current file ('.' just gives you the directory of the root script executing).

So what you want is:

fopen(__DIR__ . '/../logs/mylog.log', "a")

answered Mar 16 '13 at 15:21

Jeremy Blalock

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17
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Indeed. `dirname(__FILE__)` can be used for portability to PHP installations under 5.3.0. – TaZ Mar 16 '13 at 15:31

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 16 '13 at 15:20

8

You can use $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] which gives the document root of the virtual host.

eg: $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/log/mylog.log"

answered Mar 16 '13 at 15:20

Can Geliş

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6

You are assuming he is running this via a web server and not the command line. – Brandon Mar 16 '13 at 15:21

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 16 '13 at 15:20

8

This should work:

fopen(__DIR__ . '/../logs/mylog.log', "a");

or in PHP < 5.3:

fopen(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../logs/mylog.log', "a");

answered Mar 16 '13 at 15:20

Brandon

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How to write the path in php fopen?

3 Answers3