Why doesnt ../ (dot dot slash) work in my root directory?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Relative include files

For example,

    include('../admin/db_cred.php');

That works if I am in another folder such as public. However if I am just at www.SITE.com/index.php, it does not work.

Warning: include(../admin/db_cred.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/[...].php on line 6

I added the (dot dot slash) because searching ../ does not work very well...

How exactly does it "not work"? – Keith Thompson Dec 17 '12 at 20:00 — Keith Thompson, Dec 17 '12 at 20:00
Sorry, I updated to include the warning. – fwho Dec 17 '12 at 20:02 — fwho, Dec 17 '12 at 20:02
@KeithThompson `"does not work very well"` – Asad Saeeduddin Dec 17 '12 at 20:03 — Asad Saeeduddin, Dec 17 '12 at 20:03
You don't have permission to access that folder. – emco Dec 17 '12 at 20:04 — emco, Dec 17 '12 at 20:04

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 17 '12 at 20:01

The ../ convention indicates to move up one directory level from where you are. If you are in the root directory, you cannot move up any more levels.

If your /admin folder is in the root directory and you call this from the /public directory, then ../admin/ would allow you to select the /admin folder from one level below

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 17 '12 at 20:04

../ means "the folder above this one" or "move up a folder." For example, if you are in a terminal and enter cd ../ you will move up a folder from where you started.

When you're at site.com/index, you are very likely in the web root of your site and, therefore, cannot go up a level, because there is no level up.

"But there are folders above /var/www!" Yes, there are, but your scripts do not have access to them (this is a very good thing, you don't want a hijacked script to gain access to your entire server). As far as your scripts are concerned, /var/www (or whatever your web root is) is the topmost level, regardless of what is actually on the filesystem.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 17 '12 at 20:03

0

../ is parent folder, but root have no parent.

If you want to resolve

http://site/admin/db_cred.php

you should write it like this:

include('~/admin/db_cred.php');

answered Dec 17 '12 at 20:03

OakNinja

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Why doesnt ../ (dot dot slash) work in my root directory?

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