Re: Re: Working directory of PHP pages?

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 12:47 AM, Clancy <clancy_1@cybec.com.au> wrote: > 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)?" I believe the answer was "No, not really," from several different people. -- // Todd