howto does a file know where it's located on disk?

[JimBean]

ok, this is a simple hard one 🙂

supose i have these two files:

<?// htdocs/specials/echonow.php
echo('phpself: '.$SERVER['PHP_SELF'].'<br>');
echo('script_filename:'.$SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'].'<br>');
echo('script_name:'.$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'].'<br>');
echo('realpath:'.realpath(".").'<br>');
echo('getcwd:'.getcwd());
?>

<? // htdocs/otherdir/callerfile.php
include('/specials/echonow.php');
?>

so if i call the callerfile.php from a browser then i get ALL the results as if echonow.php would be located in the same directory as the callerfile.php as is NOT the case.

now I want a method so that echonow.php states it's real path independend from where it's called.

anyone with expertadvice plz?

[edit]removed some typo's[/edit]

[JimBean]

No one that can help me out with this one? 🙁
I know it's a hard one, can't find something on the PHPsite either.

[cgraz]

I'm not sure I understand, but you mean like $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']

Description: The absolute pathname of the currently executing script.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.php

Edit: I just noticed you are using $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'] in your script. I'm confused as to what it is you want. Could you be more specific, and give examples?

Cgraz

[douceur]

I don't actually know how, because including it (to my understanding) is the same as having the included file's code in the original page. So any code that is in it will act as if it was in the script that included the file.

[JimBean]

thats correct douceur, this is the typical behaviour of C/C++ coding techniques where the source is COMPILED before executing. But PHP is a scripting interpreter, no? So each file is codded with path's in mind as is not the case with C/C++ code where the target system is in mind.

[JimBean]

Thanks for you interest cgraz too, I realy can use some help with that one.
If you would ask me, it looks like a shortcomming in the desing of PHP for now. I've reduced the problem a lot just to the basic where it starts.

So this is what I want to have:

A script that can "say" I'm located "here"
OR better said "echo" I'm located in ( "D:\Apache\htdocs\somewhere\echonow.php"
OR "/somewhere/echonow.php") as is relative to the documentroot, virtual directory, or filesystempath.
Any will do.

The first file does simply prints out the path like this:

<?// /htdocs/specials/echonow.php <= watch this path!
echo('script_filename:'.$_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'].'<br>'); 
?> 

The second file is the "caller" witch may NOT have influence on the CALLED file. (as is not the case now)

<? // htdocs/otherdir/callerfile.php <= watch this path again
include('/specials/echonow.php'); 
?> 

So calling the callerfile.php will output:

script_filename:/otherdir/callerfile.php

But I would like:

script_filename:/specials/echonow.php

OR

script_filename: D:/Apache/htdocs/somewhere/echonow.php

or something that looks like that 🙂

Extra note:
this is the reverse of what I found on the PHP site .... i'll search for it, brb 🙂

OK, here it is: THIS is THE REVERSE of the problem:

murat at nospamx dot robcol dot k12 dot tr
30-Dec-2002 06:15

Another interesting thing about the included files is that they return the includer's file information when you use server variables. For example let's say you have two files like this:

/included.php

<? echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>

/caller.php

<? include "included.php"; ?>

When caller.php is called, PHP will print "/caller.php" although the echo function is actually called from the /included.php file.

This might be very useful when you create a logger script which will log the caller page's relative url, time, etc. to a database every time a page is viewed. You would simply use <? include "logthis.php"; ?> at the beginning of each page you would wish to be logged.
(copied from php.net documentation)