Reading a file in a different directory php

Question

I am trying to read a file from a directory 2 folders lower than the script. The code works fine when the file is in the same directory but when its lower, it fails every time. Here's My code

<?php
$logfile = '/pass/uploads/test.aes';
$my_file = file_get_contents("$logfile");
echo $my_file;
?>

Ideas?

Answer 1

A filename beginning with / is an absolute name, and is relative to the root of the filesystem.

Remove the beginning slash if it's meant to be a name relative to the current directory. Or, tack __DIR__ onto the beginning of the name, like __DIR__ . '/pass/uploads/test.aes'.

Answer 2

Try this code

<?php
    $logfile = '../../pass/uploads/test.aes';
    $my_file = file_get_contents($logfile);
    echo $my_file;
?>

Answer 3

You should just be able to use ../../ at the beginning of the path to go up two directories, unless the permissions on those directories are set incorrectly.

EDIT: as cHao said, adding / to the path will go to the root of the file system, which will almost certainly result in a permission error.