Linking to files not in www root

[Anon]

I am trying to figure out a way to link to files that are not within the root http directory on my server.
Here's what I am trying to do:
I have a DB table that lists photos and their paths. A select is performed and a file name and path are returned. Lets say my web document root is "/var/www/html" on my server. Now, suppose the file I want to create a hyperlink to is located in "/home/user/photo". How can I link to that file?
Thanks in advance.

[jcornett]

The web users cannot get to it directly from a link, however, you could write a php script to accept a filename with path, and output that file to the user.

So, for instance, the same script you are using to get the filename/path could be used to also go ahead and output that file to the user using something like the fpassthru function.

Alternatively if you have multiple files you would like for the user to select from, you could have the DB selection script list the available files and add an anchor tag to another script that would pass the information through to the user. (e.g. the DB select script lists 4 files, each with a link to "download.php?filename=/path_to_file/filename.jpg")

Hope this makes sense. 😉

John Cornett