global to superglobal

I have a database that was created on an earlier version of PostgreSQL and uses global variables with register_globals = on for php4. I have migrated the database to postgresql-7.3.1 with mod_php-4.2.3 and have set the register_globals to on. In order to use the default setting of register_globals = off, I need to reprogram my php files. I would appreciate some suggestions on how to go about modifying the code. Is there a script that could be run on each file to convert to the superglobals that would work with the register_globals off? I also need to know the exact syntax: for example, one current line is - include "$DOCUMENT_ROOT/../lib/somefile.conf"; Someone did suggest the following: include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/../lib/somefile.conf'; however, there is a difference in the use of the quotation marks and I do not understand the use of the . and .. Could someone explain, please? PJ