php.ini include syntax - what does .: or .; mean?

[Novic]

In the php.ini the include_path for windows systems looks something like this:

; UNIX: "/path1:/path2"
;include_path = ".:/php/includes"
;
; Windows: "\path1;\path2"
include_path=".;C:\php\PEAR"

I understand the paths themselves, but what does the ".:" mean in the Unix include path, and the ".;" mean in the Windows include path?

[bradgrafelman]

The "." means the same in both - the current directory. For the UNIX paths, the colon is used as a separator, whereas for the windows paths the semicolon is used instead.

[Weedpacket]

As illustrated in the documenting comments. In Unix it's "path one, colon, path two", and in Windows it's "path two, semicolon, path two".

[Novic]

Ok, to make sure I understand this correctly, if I wanted to include three paths on a windows machine I would use:

include_path=".;C:\php\includes;C:\wamp\;C:\files";

and on UNIX I would use:
include_path=".:/php/includes:/wamp:/files";

and each of these statements would include not only php\includes, wamp, and files folders, but also the folder the php.ini is located in, because of the "."?

[bradgrafelman]

The "." refers to the current working directory (i.e. the directory where the PHP interpreter was invoked). This is unlikely to be the directory where php.ini is located.