Question

Writing code in PHP, how can I ensure the require_once path of a script is translated correctly regardless of where the calling script is?

Assuming a folder structure of:

ROOT
    {subfolder
    {subfolderX

In my “script A” which is in a subfolder called scripts it requires another script in another subfolder called “script B,” so my require looks like

require_once("../subfolderX/script B");

This all works okay. But if I call script A from another script which is say up a level such as:

require_once("subfolder/script A");

The call to script B doesn’t work becasue it’s now relative to the new calling script.

What is the correct technique here to ensure the path stays relative to the calling script?

Answer 1

Use the PHP magic constant __DIR__, which will point to the directory that the script resides in. In other words, do this:

require_once __DIR__ . '/../subfolderX/script B';

Instead of this:

require_once '../subfolderX/script B';