referencing root folder

kagey

hi there. i was wondering how i can reference the root folder of a website in php. i know in html you do it my putting a \"/\" in front of the path, but when i try that with the include function, it just looks for the path in the current folder, not from the root folder.

i have nested includes, so one page may include my common file, and my common file includes files in it, so depending on the the first page\'s location folder-wise whether it be in the root or a subfolder is what i am having trouble with.

the first page could be 4 folders deep, but my common page wouldn\'t know that so it couldnt put 4 ../ in front of the path. And i don\'t want to use system paths because i am going to be moving the pages around from server to server anyway, so that really isnt an option. you would think there would be an equivalent to / in php.

oh, and i tried ./ but that doesnt work

anyway
thanks for the read
kagey

kailien

Here is a work around:

Define a var for the full path. For example,

$var_path="/home/yoursite/common";

then when you include files,

include("$var_path/common.php");

When you switch hosts, just edit $var_path.

Another solution:

The best way is to edit php.ini's default include path. Then you would not have to worry about the path. However, it is very unlikely that your web host company will let you do that.

Kai

mithril

Kai wrote:

--snip--

The best way is to edit php.ini's default include path. Then you would not have to worry about the path. However, it is very unlikely that your web host company will let you do that.

--end--

Which is where ini_set() and ini_alter() come in🙂 Your webhost may have those functions disabled, but most probably don't know they exist🙂 They are found in the PHP Options and Information section of the manual. Quick synopsis:

ini_set("include_dir", "/var/www/home/php_includes");

guess what the root of your include_dir is know🙂 HTH.

Cheers,

Geoff A. virgo