Re: Re: Working directory of PHP pages?

On Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:03:19 -0500, haliphax@gmail.com (haliphax) wrote: >On Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Shawn McKenzie <nospam@mckenzies.net> wrote: >> Clancy wrote: >>> It is my understanding that when you open a page the PHP server looks for index.php in >>> the >>> site root directory, and loads it. As a result the working directory of the page will >>> be >>> the root directory of the site.  I have always worked on this assumption, and it has >>> always been correct.  On the other hand Stewart thinks that I cannot rely this, and am >>> likely to get into trouble as a result. >>> >>> Are there any systems in which my assumption will not be correct? >>> >> >> In many frameworks this assumption is not correct.  I am using the >> default CakePHP layout as an example. >> >> Depending on your terminology, your DocumentRoot is /var/www/ and in >> this case is also the filesystem path of your site's root dir, however >> the sites root dir in a URL is /. >> >> Consider the CakePHP structure: >> >> /var/www/ >>  .htaccess >>  index.php >> /var/www/webroot >>  index.php >> >> If you browse to http://example.com/ (in most cases), one >> of 2 things >> happens: >> >> 1. The webserver opens the /var/www/.htaccess and according to the >> rewrite rules there it rewrites to /var/www/webroot/.  So any getcwd() >> would be /var/www/webroot/ >> >> 2. If not using modrewrite, the web server looks for index.html and then >> index.php in /var/www/ which has a require for webroot/index.php.  So >> any getcwd() would be /var/www/. >> >> Consequently, CakePHP and the other frameworks that I've seen use >> basename() and dirname() in conjunction with __FILE__ to define the >> paths/relative dirs within the app. > >Come to think of it, this may very well be true for all MVC frameworks >(unless the models, views, and controllers are all in the same >directory as the launch script). I can at least vouch for the fact >that CodeIgniter, like CakePHP, will fudge your directory estimation >if you're expecting getcwd() to be right. Something Stewart said the other day made me realise that there was a fundamental error in the way I was thinking about this question. I had been thinking that opendir (.) opened the root directory, and that paths such as Joe/Nurg.com were relative to the root directory, but I now realise that they are relative to the current directory, whatever that might be. (Yes; I should have known better, but there is an awful swamp of burnt out brain cells at the bottom of my brain.) So the question I should have asked was "When a web page is loaded, can I rely on the CWD being the directory containing index.php (or whichever file is actually loaded)?" Thank you all for your assistance.