Before the PHP Version update I used to be able to include files as following without specifying the document root:
<?php include '/absolute/path/to/files/file1.php'; ?>
However I now have to include the same file as following:
<?php include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/absolute/path/to/files/file1.php'; ?>
What php.ini setting could have overridden the former behaviour?
Including an absolute path should be working the same way straight through PHP 5.2.9 (haven’t tried 5.3, but this shouldn’t change). Since you’re specifying an absolute path, the include_path directive has no bearing.
Can you provide some more information? What PHP version, platform, and the error you get back from include would be a great start.
Okay, it looks like your application is living in /var/www/vhosts/DOMAIN, and you’re looking for /conf/common.php, right? I don’t know if your file is actually in /conf/ or if it’s in /var/www/vhosts/DOMAIN/conf/ (I assume the latter, with the information given). If it’s in /conf/, then make sure that your Web server user can read that directory. If not, change your include to /var/www/vhosts/DOMAIN/httpdocs/conf/common.php.
Better yet, you might be able to do
include '../conf/common.php, depending on where common.php lives in relation to your main script for the requested page.Remember that any path given with a leading ‘/’ is absolute in relation to the file system, not the Web server document root. Any path given without a ‘/’ is assumed to be a relative path, relative to your executing script (not the current file). My guess is that prepending $_SERVER[‘DOCUMENT_ROOT’] to your path is changing the absolute path to a relative path. I have no idea why an absolute path would act as a relative path pre-upgrade, unless you were operating in a jailed environment (common with virtual hosts) which got removed during the upgrade.