how to access file from outside root directory in php

Question

I have a code to download zip files:

$dl_path = './';  
$filename = 'favi.zip';  
$file = $dl_path.$filename; 
if (file_exists($file))  {
  header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
  header('Content-Type: application/zips');     
  header("Pragma: public");     
  header("Expires: 0");     
  header("Cache-Control:must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0"); 
  header("Content-Type:application/force-download");    
  header("Content-Type:application/download");  
  header("Content-Disposition:attachment;filename=$filename ");     
  header("Content-Transfer-Encoding:binary ");
  header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
  ob_clean();
  flush();
  readfile($file);
  exit;
}

there is root directory /public_html, the script is executing in root directory.

there is zip file in / directory.

i am trying to use the $dl_path as / but it is not working.

Please help.

1. format your code correctly; 2. use ../ as path to move below public_html — Sergei Beregov, Jul 27 '13 at 09:49

CodeAngry · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-29T08:32:05.190

$dl_path = __DIR__.'/..'; // parent folder of this script
$filename = 'favi.zip';
$file = $dl_path . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $filename;

// Does the file exist?
if(!is_file($file)){
    header("{$_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL']} 404 Not Found");
    header("Status: 404 Not Found");
    echo 'File not found!';
    die;
}

// Is it readable?
if(!is_readable($file)){
    header("{$_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL']} 403 Forbidden");
    header("Status: 403 Forbidden");
    echo 'File not accessible!';
    die;
}

// We are good to go!
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Type: application/zip');
header("Pragma: public");
header("Expires: 0");
header("Cache-Control:must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
header("Content-Type: application/force-download");
header("Content-Type: application/download");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename={$filename}");
header("Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary ");
header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
while(ob_get_level()) ob_end_clean();
flush();
readfile($file);
die;

^ try this code. See if it works. If it doesn't:

If it 404's means the file is not found.
If it 403's it means you can't access it (permissions issue).

Yes, it's working, Thanking You. And A small thing, downloaded file is saved as 'favi.zip' instead of favi.zip. how to change that. — RJ501, Jul 29 '13 at 07:55
Fixed the `header("Content-Disposition: attachment;filename={$filename}");` to work properly now. — CodeAngry, Jul 29 '13 at 08:32

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:00

First of all check if your script is running under the correct directory by echoing dirname(__FILE__).

If it is running under public_html then you can change the code like this:

$dl = dirname(__FILE__). '/../';

But beware of security issue!

Check if you have read/write permission on the file and directory
Check the open_basedir restriction in php.ini (see How can I relax PHP's open_basedir restriction?)

Hope this helps

how to access file from outside root directory in php

2 Answers2

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