Posted by orbstra@gmail.com on 04/22/07 19:02

On Apr 22, 1:24 am, gordonb.n5...@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) wrote:
> >> >do I have to prefix every absolute path with document root to get it to
> >>>work?
>
> >> An absolute *FILE* path or absolute *URL* path? There are important
> >> differences.
>
> >No, only file paths... shit... I guess ;/ Didn't realize there was a
> >difference?
>
> >When someone uses my site:www.jonslaughter.com/somedir/somefile.php, can
> >everything after the domain name be considered a file path? (atleast if it
> >actually looks like a file path)
>
> >That is, on my site I will be using file paths to represent url paths.
>
> My bet is that the document root of your web site is NOT / .
> And it certainly shouldn't be.
>
> >Theres a one to one correspondence between the urls and files. (excluding
> >the additional domain name and protocol in the url)
>
> No, there isn't. There should be *NO* URL that pulls up the file
> /etc/passwd from your system. Or in the case of Windows, there should
> be *NO* url for the files containing the registry, or any of the files
> in the Windows system directory. There should be *NO* URL that pulls up
> most of the executables for your system, as they might be copyrighted
> and your license may not permit you to distribute them without the
> corresponding source code. Besides, nasty people will see you have
> unpatched executables and try to crack your system.
>
> Your URL might be:http://www.jonslaughter.com/images/flag.jpeg
> The corresponding file might be:
> /usr/local/www/document_root/images/flag.jpeg
>
>
>
>
>
> >> If you are attempting to use a URL path as an absolute file path,
> >> yes, you have to prefix it with document root.
>
> >> A file path might be used like this (on UNIX; try DIR on Windows):
>
> >> ls -l /usr/local/www/document_root/images/flag.jpg
>
> >> A URL path might be used like this:
>
> >>http://myhost.mydomain.com/images/flag.jpg
>
> >Ok, but what I am doing is only keeping the /images/flag.jpg
>
> >so maybe I'll have a file in document_root that opens the flag.jpg
>
> Files do not open other files.
>
> >if I do something like read('/images/flag.jpg') then it works because it
> >uses the relative dir scheme. But now if I wasn't in document root then it
> >wouldn't(assuming there is no /images/flag.jpg in that dir)
>
> To further confuse things, there is the PHP setting include_dir,
> and PHP does have a current working directory, which you can change.
> I suspect a lot of what you claim about how things work will suddenly
> break if these are changed.
>
> On my system, I have an include directory which is *OUTSIDE* the
> document root, for, among other things, database login and password
> information. This directory is listed, by absolute FILE path, in
> include_path. I can refer to a particular file containing a
> particular database login for a particular application with:
> include "tv.inc";
> from *ANY* PHP script on any of several virtual hosts, in one of
> the document root directories or several levels below that, and
> I'll always get the file. The only caveat is that I can't leave
> a different "tv.inc" file around in the same directory as one of
> the scripts. Even that I could fix by putting the path to my include
> directory *FIRST* in include_path, or leave "." out of it entirely.
>
> >>>For some reason I thought that prefixing a path with '/' or './' with make
> >>>it absolute w.r.t to document root but I guess not?
>
> >> If you mean something like:
>
> >> SRC="/images/flag.jpg"
> >> just prefixing it with / makes it an absolute URL. To get a *FILE* path,
> >> you need to prefix the document root.
>
> >ok. I guess thats it then. I thought then that you could use absolute urls
> >and the would be resolved w.r.t to the document root.
>
> You can use an absolute URL *IN A BROWSER* and they will be resolved with
> respect to the document root. That is *NOT* true of "include".
>
>
>
>
>
> >> If you prefix "./", you're making it relative (to *WHAT* depends on
> >> context - for include, see include_path).
>
> >>>e.g., when I do
>
> >>>include './Scripts/AddNav.php';
>
> >>>or
>
> >>>include '/Scripts/AddNav.php';
>
> >> include takes a *FILE* path.
>
> >ok.
>
> >So essentially what your saying is that there is no such thing as absolute
> >file paths? That is, all file paths are relative?
>
> No, there are absolute file paths. File paths are what you use
> with a shell, and what you get back when you type "pwd". There
> won't be any URL paths to files on your system if you remove the
> web server (and therefore, PHP).
>
> Look at it this way: You have to use a file path where a file path
> is required and you have to use a URL path where a URL path is
> required. In some places you can use either but a URL path has to
> start with "http:". You can't mix them, just like you cannot dial
> a postal address nor can you put a phone number and a stamp on a
> letter and expect it to arrive at the correct place. It may be
> that in your office complex, your office number is both the last 3
> digits of your phone number AND it's the last 3 digits of your (USA,
> 9-digit) zip code. You can use a short-cut reference (relative
> path) to your office by just office number, but not when talking
> to someone in a different building.
>
>
>
>
>
> >>>It only happens to work if that path is in the current directory but it
> >>>won't goto the root directory.
>
> >>>i.e., the above is doing the exact same as if I did
>
> >>>include 'Scripts/AddNav.php';
>
> >>>But in any case this doesn't work in general unless I use
>
> >>>include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/Scripts/AddNav.php';
>
> >>>ofcourse this seems like a mess to do every time I want to use an absolute
> >>>path... which is a lot.
>
> >>>Is that what I'm stuck with doing or is there a function, say, like abp
> >>>that
> >>>will take a path and prefix the document root to it?
>
> >> If you've got an include file that you include at the front of every
> >> page, (PHP autoinclude?) you could include that one as above, and
> >> inside it, set $ScriptDir and then:
>
> >> include $ScriptDir.'/AddNav.php';
>
> >> which is a little shorter.
>
> >YEah, I thought about that. I haven't got the autoinclude stuff to work but
> >was just going to create a function like ap(somepath) that would prefix
> >somepath with the document root.
>
> Fine. Now how do you define that function? With include, or require,
> probably. Otherwise it's a lot more work than
> include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/Scripts/AddNav.php';
>
>
>
>
>
> >I just needed to understand the difference. I didn't realize that there
> >were url and file paths and that only urls had the absolute ability. I think
> >I got it now though.
>
> >Thanks,
> >Jon- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I always did something like this.. I Can't remember the exact $_Server
part b/c I am not at home, but it goes something like that where
$_Server is http://www.orbstra.com/ and then I toss guava/ at the end.

class get
{
function url()
{
return ($_SERVER['URL'] . guava/);
}
}

so when I need to:

include get::url() . 'system/';

So on and so forth...

[Back to original message]