PHP include path sub-folder files not included

Question

I have a site where the PHP include path is /usr/share/php Within this path I have a sub-folder containing some utility files, e.g. /usr/share/php/utils. my_session.php is one of these utility files.

My application calls

require ("my_session.php");

and this works even though the file is actually within the utils folder.

I am trying to replicate this site in another installation and I am getting the error:

Failed opening required 'my_session.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/php)

My question is:

Should the php include path also include files in sub-folders in the include path? This appears to be the case on my original site and I don't know why the behaviour seems to be different on the second site.

no, subfolders are generally not included. did you use require ("utils/my_session.php"); in your original project? — Sascha Galley
– Sascha Galley, Commented Jun 3, 2011 at 12:27
Nope, that's the weird thing. I need to look at it again. I am missing something. — Mullins
– Mullins, Commented Jun 3, 2011 at 12:58

SileNT · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-03 12:28:07Z

4

According to PHP documentation when you try to include a file, only paths listed in the include_path directive are checked. PHP is not supposed to check their subfolders.

answered Jun 3, 2011 at 12:28

SileNT

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2 Comments

Mullins Over a year ago

The include for the sub-folder was indeed in the php.ini, but only for apache2. I had checked using php -i on the command line but this uses a different ini file.

SileNT Over a year ago

Unfortunately sometimes the server configuration is set in a such way that command line execution of php and apache module are using different php.ini files. I had such problems in the past and I know this is very tricky and hard to catch. Happy to hear that you solved it. Regards.

Jürgen Thelen · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-03 14:04:50Z

My guess would be that this fails because you are using a relative path for the require.

Your include_path is defined as .:/usr/share/php. That means only two folders will be checked when require('my_session.php') gets executed:

the current path
the folder /usr/share/php

I don't know your folder structure, so let's just imagine one:

my_project
- app
-- index.php
- lib
-- my_session.php

Now, if my_project/app/index.php tries to require('my_session.php') this will fail, because the current folder at the time executing the require is my_project/app/ and there is no file entry of my_session.php relative to my_project/app/ (it's relative to my_project/lib/ instead).

Long story short: Try to to use an absolute path instead of your relative one, e.g.

require('/var/www/html/my_project/lib/my_session.php');

_{Edit: removed and its subfolders, which was wrong. Too much __autoload in my brain^^}

Yeroon · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-03 12:44:26Z

0

Two solutions:

Add /usr/share/php/utils to your include_path.

or

Include your file with require ("utils/my_session.php");

answered Jun 3, 2011 at 12:44

Yeroon

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