Relative path in html with php server

Question

I use php -S localhost:8000 as my development server. At the end I'll use nginx. But I have a problem with php server.

root
|
|---/app
    |
    |---/index.html
    |---/scripts
    |   |
    |   |---/main.css
    |
    |---/styles
        |
        |---/main.js

In my app/index.html I have:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles/main.css" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>

  <script src="scripts/main.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

When I open the page in my browser with localhost:8000/app the css and javascript can't be find. The browser is looking for localhost:8000/styles resp. localhost:8000/scripts instead of localhost:8000/app/styles resp. localhost:8000/app/scripts. When I directly open the file withouth server or with nginx, the files are found correctly. So the php server changes something. What's going on here?

I tried it in Chrome and Firefox. Same behavior in both browsers. When I open the website with localhost/app (nginx) everything works as expected. When I open the website with localhost:8000/app (php -S localhost:8000) the scripts and styles can't be found. It's the same files with the same file root. Where comes the different behavior from?

So what are you using? You're saying it works perfectly fine without a server and with nginx. But it doesn't work with "PHP server". PHP is not a server? — icecub, Jul 03 '16 at 15:19
I use php for development. It's fast but it doesn't work as expected. I want to know, what I have to configure. php -S is a small server for development — Thomas Sablik, Jul 03 '16 at 15:23
I tried it in Chrome and Firefox. Same behavior in both browsers. When I open the website with localhost/app (nginx) everything works as expected. When I open the website with localhost:8000/app (php -S localhost:8000) the scripts and styles can't be found. It's the same files with the same file root. Where comes the different behavior from? — Thomas Sablik, Jul 03 '16 at 15:53

icecub · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-03T16:19:38.603

1

After checking the offical docs on PHP: Built-in web server it clearly states:

URI requests are served from the current working directory where PHP was started, unless the -t option is used to specify an explicit document root.

edited Jul 03 '16 at 16:19

answered Jul 03 '16 at 15:26

icecub

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$path contains the path to the file on the filesystem and not the url on the server. This doesn't work. Furthermore index.html shouldn't be parsed. It's a frontend html file without php – Thomas Sablik Jul 03 '16 at 15:49
@ThomasSablik Than please don't talk about `index.PHP` in your question in the first place: `In my app/index.php I have:`. If you want to get the server URL instead, all you have to do is: `$server_url = "http://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]";` – icecub Jul 03 '16 at 15:56
I want a relative link using php-webserver. It doesn't work. I don't want to use php-code. `php -S localhost:8000` creates a small development server. But the behavior of this server is not correct. I want to know how to configure this. `./file` or `file` is a relative link to a file. But with php-socket it's changed to an absolute link. I don't want this. – Thomas Sablik Jul 03 '16 at 15:59
@ThomasSablik Then I suggest you create a small php file with only this code: ``. It will show you where your `php.ini` file is located which controls the behaviour of your php server. You can change all of its settings in there. – icecub Jul 03 '16 at 16:00
I know where the php.ini is. I opened it and I read it. But I didn't find the option responsible for this strange behavior – Thomas Sablik Jul 03 '16 at 16:03
@ThomasSablik Check the official docs on it next time please: [PHP: Built-in web server](http://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.webserver.php). It's like on top of it: **URI requests are served from the current working directory where PHP was started, unless the -t option is used to specify an explicit document root.** – icecub Jul 03 '16 at 16:15
I don't want a different document root. My document root is `root`. That's correct. But every relative link is converted into an absolute link. I want to change it. – Thomas Sablik Jul 03 '16 at 16:20
@ThomasSablik You are missing the point. It says "All relative paths are considdered to start from the directory where PHP started". So whether you have a relative path in /root or in /root/app/whatever.. it will ignore that and just start from root. You need to specificly give it the relative path from your root directory even though the file is not. – icecub Jul 03 '16 at 16:23
So it is not possible to use relative paths starting from current file? – Thomas Sablik Jul 03 '16 at 16:26
@ThomasSablik No it isn't. That's why it's called a development server and not to be used as a real server. It doesn't behave the same way as it is very limited in its capabilities – icecub Jul 03 '16 at 16:27

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 08 '21 at 20:04

0

This is an annoying behavior of the PHP built-in web server. Fortunately, there is a workaround: just start your application including index.html in the URI. Open the browser and go to

http://localhost:8000/app/index.html

answered May 08 '21 at 20:04

www.admiraalit.nl

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Relative path in html with php server

2 Answers2