Question

I am having three files which are as follows

1. users.php
2. auth.php
3. main.php

where users.php is located at root of the directory / . auth and main.php is located into the test folder example /test/auth.php & /test/main.php.

Users.php containing following php code.

<?php 
include('test/main.php');
?>

auth.php containing following php code.

<?php 
include('../test/main.php');
?>

main.php code

<?php
include('test/db.php');
?>

Where i am executing users.php it is working perfectly but when i am executing users.php which is located at root folder gives me output perfect but if i am executing /test/auth.php

Warning: include(test/db.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /path/db.php on line 2

is there any solution to access auth.php with error with proper function.

Answer 1

Includes are always relative to the working directory (actually, relative to the PATH, of which the working directory is a part). The working directory is determined by the script that’s being executed. Say you have this structure:

webroot/
    foo.php
    folder/
        bar.php

When you run foo.php either through $ php foo.php on the command line or by visiting localhost/foo.php in your browser, the working directory is webroot/. If you run folder/bar.php, the working directory is webroot/folder.

To make sure you’re including files relative to the file the include is in, use something like:

include __DIR__ . '/folder/bar.php`;

That, or alter your PATH to add your project root to it and always include relative to the project root. I prefer either file relative includes as shown above or autoloading though.