Referencing the home directory in CLI PHP

Question

The following examples don't work in php -

$data = file_get_contents('~/Documents/someFile.txt');

//no such file or directory

$data = file_get_contents('$HOME/Documents/someFile.txt');

// no such file or directory

What's the reason why this doesn't work?

Just based on the error report - those files don't exist where you think they do? — Adam, Oct 31 '17 at 19:21
`'$HOME/Documents/someFile.txt'` - variables don't get parsed in single quotes, the `$HOME`'s value is unknown. — Funk Forty Niner, Oct 31 '17 at 19:23
`'~/` you're trying to get this from a shared server. You need to use a full system path. — Funk Forty Niner, Oct 31 '17 at 19:24

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 31 '17 at 19:22

1

The expansion of ~ and $HOME is done by your shell, not by PHP. Depending on your config, you can probably use:

$data = file_get_contents($_SERVER['HOME'] . '/Documents/someFile.txt');

answered Oct 31 '17 at 19:22

Alex Howansky

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 31 '17 at 19:22

1

Use getenv('HOME') or $_SERVER['HOME']. You cannot use $HOME in single quotes because its literal will be used, and ~ isn't known by php.

answered Oct 31 '17 at 19:22

Alex Barker

Thanks. that works. I was purposefully trying to use it in single quote as its not a PHP variable. I thought it would work as string in command line. Clearly, I need more research into using php in the cli. – jstyles85 Oct 31 '17 at 19:42

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 31 '17 at 19:32

0

$data = file_get_contents('$HOME/Documents/someFile.txt');

has two problems:

You never set the variable $HOME. HOME is an environment variable, but they don't automatically become PHP variables like they do in the shell.
Variables aren't expanded inside single quotes, see What is the difference between single-quoted and double-quoted strings in PHP? (not coincidentally, this is the same as the shell).

You can do:

$HOME = getenv('HOME');
$data = file_get_contents("$HOME/Documents/someFile.txt");

answered Oct 31 '17 at 19:32

Barmar

Yes, i'm aware of the differences between single/double quotes in both php and bash. I didn't however realize I had to pass the $HOME environment variable to PHP. My thought was to simply pass the path to file_get_contents as string as I would normally navigate in cli. – jstyles85 Oct 31 '17 at 21:19
But in the CLI `$HOME` is a variable that has to be replaced with its value. – Barmar Oct 31 '17 at 21:20

3 Answers3