HOW to INCLUDE an INC from parent root?

Anon

Hi, I am trying to include an *.inc file that is in a parent directory of where my .php3 file is.

Basically let's say I have an INC in the root. I also have a subfolder in the same root. Inside the subfolder I have the .php3 file that recalls the INC from the root with the INCLUDE function.
I tried this:

<? include('../head.inc'); ?>

but to my surprise it does not work!
Can you please help me?
Thank you!

Anon

include('/pathto.file.inc/');

you may need to check your include path in phpinfo() to see if you have a set directory, or a global setting.

The apache config may have include set to say /home/websiteroot/include/ if this is the case then you need to have your files in that directory.

You may also have to include the entire path from the root in the call to the file.

Ron

Anon

I am working on the remote server, not on the local server so I don\'t think I have access to phpinfo() (but as I said I am a beginner so I am not sure).

Because the following is the error I get:

Warning: Unable to access ../head.inc in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/chaindlk.net/httpdocs/prova/chaindlk.php3 on line 11

Warning: Failed opening \'../head.inc\' for inclusion (include_path=\'.:\') in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/chaindlk.net/httpdocs/prova/chaindlk.php3 on line 11

I assume that I will have to the full path like this:
/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/chaindlk.net/httpdocs/prova/

but if this is true I have to ask: is there no way to have a relative url instead of an absolute url?
I mean if including an INC file in a subfolder works like this:

<? include(\'subfolder/head.inc\'); ?>

then why would including an INC file in the root folder of a subfolder NOT work when it is like this:
<? include(\'../head.inc\'); ?>

Does this mean that if I switch no another server I will have to go through all the PHP3 files and change the path to all the INC files??? I would like to keep it relative paths so if I switch to another server I have to make as little changes as possible, you know what I mean?

Anon

FOLLOW UP:
I tried to do this:

<? include('/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/chaindlk.net/httpdocs/head.inc'); ?>

but I get this errors:

Warning: Unable to access /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/chaindlk.net/httpdocs/head.inc in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/chaindlk.net/httpdocs/prova/chaindlk.php3 on line 11

Warning: Failed opening '/usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/chaindlk.net/httpdocs/head.inc' for inclusion (include_path='.:') in /usr/local/psa/home/vhosts/chaindlk.net/httpdocs/prova/chaindlk.php3 on line 11

Anon

Marc,

This line in the error: (include_path='.:'), tells me that you can use relative paths. If there was a specific path, it would have returned path to include directory.

So you should be able to do includes as such:

file in same folder -

include('include.file');

file in sub folder -

include('subfolder/include.file');

different folder -

include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'subfolder/include.file');

I don't think the full path to the usr bin is the path to file you need to include.

Hope this helps.

Ron

Anon

Thank you VERY MUCH for your VERY VALUABLE suggestions... It didn't work right away but after a couple of guessing tests it turned out that the right thing is:

<? include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/head.inc'); ?>

Because my INC is not in a subfolder but is in the very root I had to add a / before the included file.

Thanks again for solving my issue!

PS I was trying to get to the point where the include file (which contains images links to subfolders addressed relatively, like "images/pic1.gig") would show me the pictures in every subfolder of the website when recalled but even though you helped me solve this problem appearently the images/pic1.gif like links are not considered form the root but from the subfolder where the include while which contains them is processed, therefore I will have to put absolute urls for all the pics...