Include outside web directory

Anon

How is a file included outside the web directory? If a file info.txt is located outside the web directory, the statement : include ("info.txt") does not work.

Any help is appreciated!

Anon

Where is the file in relation to your web pages? In a subdirectory, or another directory at the same level?

If in a subdirectory, then:

include ("/subdir/info.txt");

If in another directory at same level, you need to go 'up one, then down again':

include ("../otherdir/info.txt");

Anon

The file is one level down in relation to the www root. That is :

/
/info.txt
/www/
/www/index.php

In this example only the /www/ directory is web enabled (publicly accessible). Now I need to include info.txt in index.php.

Any clues?

Anon

OK, so:

include ("../info.txt");

I have to say that I haven't tried doing an 'include' like this, but it works fine for 'fopen', so I can only assume it would be OK.

I have my available webspace like this:

/
/myfiles
/myfiles/info.txt
/www
/www/index.php

so I would use:

include ("../myfiles/info.txt");

The only other thing that might make this not work, is file permissions. I have never had this problem on my ISP's server though.

Anon

Included files do NOT have to be in doc root, only files that are called by a client. You can access anywhere on the filesystem, as long as the permissions are valid, for includes.

This makes included files great for storing passwords, etc. for database access, etc.

Anon

I assume from your question that you haven't got a regular include directory that is noted in php.ini and/or httpd.conf?

That's the easiest way, really. Also, then you don't have to specify it every time.

And, if you ever want to change the location, just edit php.ini and/or httpd.conf ... instead of editing a thousand files to get the include folder correct.

Anon

Another way to include files from other directories : use the "include_path" PHP option to specify a list of directories where to search :

include_path=.:/home/somedir

Anon

Sorry, I hadn't seen John's post ;-)

Anon

Could you give and example of what would go into a php.ini or http.conf file to satisfy a include path? I can't seem to find much info on the php.ini file.

Thanks.

Anon

Hi,

Yes. My include_path in php.ini, for example, is as follows:

include_path = "/usr/local/apache/php"

This is on a Linux box; if you're on Windows (boo, hiss), adjust to fit your environment (C:\whatever\whatever) etc. or something like that ...

The include path specifies the directory that your include files are in. After setting it, restart Apache (./apachectl restart) to reload PHP as a module and force it to recheck its initialization config.

Note:
Don't put a trailing / on the include path directory.

Also:
You can also set the include path in httpd.conf, as follows:
php_value include_path /usr/local/apache/php

Good luck!
-john