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require_once> <require
Last updated: Fri, 14 Nov 2008

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include()

A instrução include() inclui e avalia o arquivo informado.

A documentação a seguir se aplica também a require(). Esses dois construtores são idênticos a exceção de como eles manipulam erros. Ambas produzem um Warning mas require() resultará em um Fatal Error. Em outras palavras, utilize require() se você deseja que um arquivo faltando interrompa o processamento da página. include() não se comporta da mesma maneira, permitindo que o script continue nessas situações. Em todo caso, vale a pena confirmar a configuração da diretiva include_path. Esteja avisado que um erro de interpretação no arquivo incluído não causa a parada do processamento em versões do PHP anteriores a PHP 4.3.5. A partir desta versão, causa.

Arquivos a incluir são procurados primeiramente no include_path relativo ao diretório atual de trabalho, e então no diretório atual do script. Por exemplo, se seu include_path é libraries, o diretório atual é /www/, se você incluiu include/a.php e há um b.php nesse arquivo, b.php será procurado primeiro em /www/libraries/ e somente depois em /www/include/.0 Se o nome do arquivo começa com ./ ou ../, ele é procurado apenas no diretório atual.

Quando um arquivo é incluído, seu código entra no escopo de variável da linha onde a inclusão ocorre. Qualquer variável disponível da linha onde a chamada da inclusão ocorre estará disponível para o arquivo incluído, daquele ponto em diante. Entretanto, todas as funções e classes definidas no arquivo incluído tem um escopo global.

Exemplo #1 Exemplos de include()s simples

variaveis.php
<?php

$cor 
'verde';
$fruta 'maçã';

?>

teste.php
<?php

echo "Uma $fruta $cor"// Uma

include 'vars.php';

echo 
"Uma $fruta $cor"// Uma maçã verde

?>

Se o include ocorre dentro de uma função do arquivo principal, então todo o código incluído será executado como se ele tivesse sido definido dentro daquela função. Da mesma forma, ele seguirá o escopo de variáveis da função. Uma exceção para esta regra são as constantes mágicas que são avaliadas pelo parser antes dos includes ocorrerem.

Exemplo #2 Incluindo dentro de funções

<?php

function foo()
{
    global 
$cor;

    include 
'variaveis.php';

    echo 
"Uma $fruta $cor";
}

/* variaveis.php está no escopo de foo(),   *
.* então $fruta NÃO está disponível fora de *
.* seu escopo. $cor estará porque ela foi   *
.* declarada como global                    */

foo();                    // Uma maçã verde
echo "A $fruta $cor";   // Uma maçã

?>

Quando um arquivo é incluído, o interpretador sai do modo PHP e entra no modo HTML (no começo do arquivo incluído), e alterna novamente no seu fim. Por isso, qualquer código dentro do arquivo incluído que precisa ser executado como código PHP tem de ser delimitado por tags válidas de abertura e fechamento.

Se "URL fopen wrappers" estão ativas no PHP (normalmente na configuração default), você pode especificar um arquivo utilizando uma URL (via HTTP ou qualquer outro wrapper suportado --- veja List of Supported Protocols/Wrappers para uma lista dos protocolos) em vez de uma caminho local. Se o servidor apontado interpreta o arquivo informado como código PHP, variáveis podem ser passadas ao arquivo incluído na URL de requisição como num HTTP GET. Isto não é necessariamente a mesma coisa que incluir o arquivo e compartilhar o escopo de variável do arquivo principal: o script será executado no servidor remoto e apenas seu resultado será incluído no script local.

Aviso

A versões Windows do PHP anteriores ao PHP 4.3.0 não suportam acesso a arquivos remotos através desta função, mesmo se allow_url_fopen estiver ativado.

Exemplo #3 include() através de HTTP

<?php

/* Este exemplo assume que www.exemplo.com está configurado para interpretar
 * arquivos .php mas não .txt. Além, 'Funciona' aqui significa que as
 * variáveis $foo e $bar estão disponíveis no arquivo incluído */

// Não funciona: arquivos txt não são manipulados em www.example.com como PHP
include 'http://www.exemplo.com/arquivo.txt?foo=1&bar=2';

// Não funciona: procura por um arquivo chamado 'arquivo.php?foo=1&bar=2' no
// sistemas de arquivo local.
include 'arquivo.php?foo=1&bar=2';

// Funciona.
include 'http://www.exemplo.com/arquivo.php?foo=1&bar=2';

$foo 1;
$bar 2;
include 
'arquivo.txt';  // Funciona.
include 'arquivo.php';  // Funciona.

?>

Aviso

Security warning

O arquivo remoto pode ser processado pelo servidor remoto (dependendo da extensão do arquivo e do fato de o servidor remoto executar o PHP ou não) mas ainda tem que produzir um script PHP válido porque ele será processado pelo servidor local. Se o arquivo do servidor remoto deve ser processado lá e apenas exibido, a função, readfile() é muito melhor para ser usada. Entretanto, um cuidado especial deve ser tomado para se assegurar que o script remoto irá produzir um código válido e desejado.

Veja também: Arquivos Remotos, fopen() e file() para informações relacionadas.

Manipulando retornos: é possível executar um comando return() dentro de um arquivo incluído para terminar o processamento naquele arquivo e retornar para o script que o chamou. Também é possível retornar valores dos arquivos incluídos. Você pode usar o valoe de uma chamada include como você faria com uma função normal. isto não é, entretanto, possível ao incluir arquivos remotos a menos que a saída do arquivo remoto tenha tags de início e final do PHP válidas (como qualquer arquivo local). Você pode declarar as variáveis necessárias dentro destas tags e elas serão introduzidas em qualquer ponto que o arquivo seja incluído.

Devido a include() ser um construtor especial da linguagem, parentesis não são necessários ao redor do seu argumento. Tenha cuidado ao comparar o valor de retorno.

Exemplo #4 Comparando o valor de retorno de include

<?php
// não funciona, avaliado como(('vars.php') == 'OK'), ex, include('')
if (include('vars.php') == 'OK') {
   echo 
'OK';
}
// funciona
if ((include 'vars.php') == 'OK') {
    echo 
'OK';
}
?>

Exemplo #5 Instruções include() e return()

return.php
<?php

$var 
'PHP';

return 
$var;

?>

noreturn.php
<?php

$var 
'PHP';

?>

testreturns.php
<?php

$foo 
= include 'return.php';

echo 
$foo// imprime 'PHP'

$bar = include 'noreturn.php';

echo 
$bar// imprime 1

?>

$bar assimila o valor 1 porque a inclusão foi realizada com sucesso. Verifique a diferença entre os exemplo. O primeiro utiliza return() dentro do arquivo incluído enquanto que o outro não. If the file can't be included, FALSE is returned and E_WARNING is issued.

Se houverem funções definidas no arquivo incluído, elas podem sr usadas no arquivo principal independentemente se elas foram antes de return() ou depois. Se o arquivo for incluído duas vezes, o PHP 5 causa um erro fatal por as funções já foram declaradas, em quanto o PHP 4 não reclama sobre funções definidas após return(). è remendado usar include_once() ao invés de conferir se o arquivo já foi incluído e condicionalmente retornar dentro do arquivo incluído.

Outra maneira de "incluir" um arquivo PHP em uma variável e capturar a saída usando Funções de Controle de Saída com include(). Por exemplo:

Exemplo #6 Usando o buffer de saída para incluir um arquivo PHP em uma string

<?php
$string 
get_include_contents('somefile.php');

function 
get_include_contents($filename) {
    if (
is_file($filename)) {
        
ob_start();
        include 
$filename;
        
$contents ob_get_contents();
        
ob_end_clean();
        return 
$contents;
    }
    return 
false;
}
?>

Para poder incluir automaticamente arquivos em um script, veja também as opções de configuração auto_prepend_file e auto_append_file no php.ini.

Nota: Este é um construtor de linguagem e não uma função, por isso não é possível chamá-lo através de funções variáveis

Veja também: require(), require_once(), include_once(), get_included_files(), readfile(), virtual() e include_path.



require_once> <require
Last updated: Fri, 14 Nov 2008
 
add a note add a note User Contributed Notes
include
w-o-f at gmx dot net
15-Nov-2008 10:53
@ jimmy dot axenhus at gmail dot com

Your example

<?php
 
if(include './foo.php' && $bar = "bar") {
      echo
"FooBar";
    }
   
?>

evaluates as

<?php
 
if(include ('./foo.php' && $bar = "bar")) {
      echo
"FooBar";
    }
?>

Therefore you have to use

<?php
 
if((include './foo.php') && $bar = "bar") {
      echo
"FooBar";
    }
?>

(See Example #4 of the documentation)
snowyurik at gmail dot com
05-Nov-2008 10:49
This might be useful:
<?php
include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/lib/sample.lib.php";
?>
So you can move script anywhere in web-project tree without changes.
Wade.
22-Oct-2008 08:20
If you're doing a lot of dynamic/computed includes (>100, say), then you may well want to know this performance comparison: if the target file doesn't exist, then an @include() is *ten* *times* *slower* than prefixing it with a file_exists() check. (This will be important if the file will only occasionally exist - e.g. a dev environment has it, but a prod one doesn't.)

Wade.
AntonioCS at gmail dot com
26-Sep-2008 10:39
Include and Require will call the __autoload function if the file that is being called extends some other class

Example Code:
File teste.php
<?php
class teste extends motherclass {
    public function
__construct() {
       
parent::__construct();   
    }      
}
?>

File example.php

<?php
require("teste.php");

if (
class_exists("motherclass"))
echo
"It exists";

?>

You will be given the output:

It exists

I think the __autoload function should be called when I instantiate the teste class not when I include/require the file.
example at user dot com
21-Sep-2008 09:33
Just about any file type can be 'included' or 'required'.  By sending appropriate headers, like in the below example, the client would normally see the output in their browser as an image or other intended mime type.

You can also embed text in the output, like in the example below.  But an image is still an image to the client's machine.  The client must open the downloaded file as plain/text to see what you embedded.

<?php

header
('Content-type: image/jpeg');
header('Content-Disposition: inline;');

include
'/some_image.jpg';
echo
'This file was provided by example@user.com.';

?>

Which brings us to a major security issue.  Scripts can be hidden within images or files using this method.  For example, instead echoing "<?php phpinfo(); ?>", a foreach/unlink loop through the entire filesystem, or some other method of disabling security on your machine.

'Including' any file made this way will execute those scripts.  NEVER 'include' anything that you found on the web or that users upload or can alter in any way.  Instead, use something a little safer to display the found file, like "echo file_get_contents('/some_image.jpg');"
thedanevans at gmail dot com
20-Sep-2008 11:02
Linking to CSS/JavaScript resources through an included file has bugged me for a long time because if I have a directory structure like:
/www
    index.php
    /sub_dir
        index.php
    /includes
        header.php
    /style
        main.css

where both index.php files include header.php and the header.php file includes something like:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style/main.css">

This will be included for /index.php but not for /sub_dir/index.php. I read through a few different ways to use relative includes but those are generally meant for the php include function not the HTML <link>. I didn't really love the idea of a new function that I would pass both the filename and a '../' string into which it could use in the href. I also didn't want to just use /style/main.css because in development it is not hosted in my root directory. Although I could change my configuration or my include_path I really just wanted to find a way for PHP to figure out the relative path for me. I finally found a solution that met my needs and here it is:

<?php
    $include_dist
= substr_count(dirname(__FILE__), DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
   
$calling_dist = substr_count(dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']), DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
?>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?=str_repeat('../', $calling_dist - $include_dist + 1)?>style/main.css">

In this case I added one to the difference to account for the fact that the include is one directory away from the base. This also means that str_repeat won't be passed a negative value, which would cause an error. dirname(__FILE__) gets the directory of the file being included while dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']) gets the directory of the file including it. The script simply finds the difference in how far off the base directory the two are and prints the appropriate number of '../' before the URL.

NOTE: dirname(__FILE__) can be replaced by __DIR__ in PHP greater than or equal to 5.3.0
jimmy dot axenhus at gmail dot com
17-Sep-2008 08:17
Never use include in an if statement.

<?php
         
if(include('./foo.php') && $bar = "bar") {
          echo
"FooBar";
          }
?>

This will not include the file foo.php, instad it will for some reason onclude the file "1" and print:

Warning: include(1) [function.include]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in (file) on line (line)

Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening '1' for inclusion (include_path='.;C:\php5\pear') in (file) on line (line)

This will also fail if you write:

<?php
         
if(include './foo.php' && $bar = "bar") {
          echo
"FooBar";
          }
?>

This will not, however, fail if you write:

<?php
         
if(include('./foo.php')) {
          echo
"FooBar";
          }
?>

PHP version: 5.2.5
Mwyann
05-Sep-2008 02:59
I have another function implementation of the include_text, that works better but makes use of the filesystem... Here it is :

<?php

function include_text($__text,$__exported){
    foreach(
$__exported as $__name => $__value) {
        $
$__name = $__value;
    }
   
$__filename = tempnam('/tmp/','Form');
   
file_put_contents($__filename,$__text);
   
ob_start();
    include
$__filename;
   
$__contents = ob_get_contents();
   
ob_end_clean();
   
unlink($__filename);
    return
$__contents;
}

?>

Usage example (the code speaks for itself)  :

<?php

   
// ....
   
$exportedVars['Names'] = $Names;
   
$exportedVars['Data'] = $Data;
   
   
$includedResult = include_text($importedText,$exportedVars);
    echo
$includedResult; // Or make anything you want with it
    // ....

?>

Note : it works nicely but doesn't return the exported vars if they are changed. I didn't neede that, so figure it out yourself if you need it (and share it !)
darkain at darkain dot com
02-Aug-2008 09:08
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
rich dot lovely at klikzltd dot co dot uk
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] and similar solutions didn't seem to work for web paths with internal symbolic links.  Alex's function gets around that and works great.
alex carstea
26-Jul-2007 08:07
Since include() caused me many problems when i was trying to test my code, I wrote a small function. It receives as parameter the path to the file to include relative to the current file. The format similar to :
       "../../path/FileName.php"
The function returns the absolute path to the file to be included. This path can be used as argument to include() and resolves the problem of nested inclusions.
<?php
function getFilePath($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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
This might help a bit for security (no guarantees).

Instead of
include $page;
put
include str_replace('../', '', './' . $page);
-hh-
23-Feb-2007 03:47
coldflame,
<?=$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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 != "..")