PHP include absolute path

Question

I have a variable on my site called $basePath which is set as:

$basePath = '/Systems/dgw/';

I am using it on all my css, js and images tags as so (shortened for better visibility):

<link href="<?php echo $basePath; ?>include/assets/css/bootstrap.min.css">

I have no problem with those includes and they work fine in wherever file and in whatever folder I am.

I have a certain included page which has the following line:

<img src="<?php echo $basePath; ?>images/new_logo.png" alt="logo"/>

And the image shows just fine. The line after it states:

<?php include($basePath.'include/assets/common/topMessages.php');?>

But the include doesn't happens. When I try it like this:

<?php include('../../include/assets/common/topMessages.php');?>

It works.

Anybody has any idea what could be wrong?

Basically there's a distinction between your webroot (ie. `www.example.com/` is the root of your website) and the root of a (unix) filesystem. The webroot is mapped to a path in the filesystem; often `www.example.com/` is mapped to something like `/var/www/example.com/http_docs/`. Your webserver automatically translates any requests for `/a/b/c` to `/var/www/example.com/http_docs/a/b/c`. However when you include a file via PHP, the webserver is not asked to translate the path, and as such it looks for `/a/b/c` in your filesystem, which obviously does not exist. — Tularis, Apr 07 '14 at 12:23

score 68 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 07 '14 at 12:20

You can't include php files relatively to your webroot that way, cause if you use the slash as first character, the reference will go much deeper than just your document root. So, instead of using your basepath, you could do something like this :

<?php 
   $path = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
   $path .= "/yourpath/yourfile.php";
   include_once($path);
?>

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 13 '15 at 14:39

If your server doesn't populate the "document_root", you may need this

    require(str_repeat('../',(substr_count(getenv('SCRIPT_URL'),'/')-1))."/path/to/file.php");

I use this line of code. It goes back to the "top" of the site tree, then goes to the file desired.
For example, let's say i have this file tree:
domain.com/aaa/index.php
domain.com/bbb/ccc/ddd/index.php
domain.com/_resources/functions.php

I can include the functions.php file from wherever i am, just by copy pasting

require(str_repeat('../',(substr_count(getenv('SCRIPT_URL'),'/')-1))."/_resources/functions.php");

If you need to use this code many times, you may create a function that returns the "str_repeat('../',(substr_count(getenv('SCRIPT_URL'),'/')-1))" part. Then just insert this function in the first file you include. I have an "initialize.php" file that i include at the very top of each php page and which contains this function. The next time i have to include files, i in fact just use the function (named "path_back"):

require(path_back()."/_resources/another_php_file.php");

Good solution! But fails for files at root level. – T. Christiansen Jan 23 '19 at 11:18 — T. Christiansen, Jan 23 '19 at 11:18

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 29 '15 at 17:19

You can add an include_path = ".:/home/myuser/mysite.com/" to your php.ini or you can add something like this into your script before the include or require:

set_include_path(get_include_path() . ":/home/myuser/mysite.com/");

The first one will work for all the scripts running in your website.

The second option will only work for the script which has the setincludepath on the code, for the rest of the application it will not work unless you have an object you call in every script that add the setincludepath.

PHP include absolute path

3 Answers3

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