PHP include() not working

Anon

I'm brand new to PHP and have just got it up and running on my Apache box. I'm trying to use a simple include statement in my page and keep getting a "failed opening <include file> for inclusion (include_path..."

Here's my include_path from my php.ini file:

include_path=.:/var/www/html/php-lib:/usr/share/php

Here's my php code:

<?php
include("/mysite/topNav.php");
?>

Here's what I've tried/verified so far:

Read/execute permissions on all php files (in fact, I chmodded everything to 777 just to make sure)
/mysite/topNav.php really exists in /var/www/html/php-lib
other PHP code is working fine on the same page as the include statement
restarted httpd more times than I can count.
verified that my php.ini file is the "real" one being read as php starts up.

As I said, I'm brand new to this, so I'm sure this is a silly oversight. That said, I can't find it, so any/all help is appreciated.

mithril

Kurt,

Try dropping the leading forward slash off your include() path. Unless you're doing something like include("./mysite/topNav.php"), it's not necessary. HTH,

Cheers,

Geoff A. Virgo

Anon

OK, so I changed my PHP code to:

<?php
include("hogin/topNav.php")
?>

and that didn't help. Additionally, I tried changing my include_path to just:

include_path = .:/var/www/html/php-lib/

and I still get the same error message. Again, all my other PHP code on the same page works fine. I'm just having trouble with the include() section.

TIA.

--kurt

mithril

Kurt,

In that case I think the problem lies in the include_path directive itself. According to the php.ini documentation, multiple include paths on *Nix are separated by a full comma (ie. /path1:/path2). I think the problem is being caused by the ".:" notation in front of your path. My own server reports my include paths as:

/etc/apache/php_includes:/usr/lib/php4

However, I've never called anything from /usr/lib/php4 so I don't know if it's possible (I'm the only one on this particular server using PHP). Try changing your path to either:

/var/www/html/php-lib

or:

./:/var/www/html/php-lib

And see if it solves the problem. If you're running PHP as an Apache module you'll of course have to restart Apache after each change. If you're running it as CGI, I'm not sure if you need to restart (you don't on Win32). Let me know if this works or not🙂 HTH!!

Cheers,

Geoff A. Virgo

Anon

adding to the question...

i am developing on win2k pro/IIS where include_path = ".." and when i include a file the syntax is include("includes/References.php");

but my web hosting server is a Linux/Apache where the include_path = .:/usr/local/lib/php.

Question is: What is the syntax to "include" my file "includes/References.php" on my web server that uses Linux/Apache?

thanks for the help

mithril

You can define any folder you wish as an includes folder. You can either use

  ini_set("include_path", "/var/www/some_user/htdocs/php_includes")

called on a per file basis (obviously put this code above any include or require statement) or you can use

  php_value include_path /var/www/some_user/htdocs/php_includes

in a .htaccess to set the include directory on a folder level. HTH.

-geoff