(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5, PHP 7)
set_include_path — Sets the include_path configuration option
$new_include_path
)Sets the include_path configuration option for the duration of the script.
Returns the old include_path on
success or FALSE on failure.
Example #1 set_include_path() example
<?php
// Works as of PHP 4.3.0
set_include_path('/usr/lib/pear');
// Works in all PHP versions
ini_set('include_path', '/usr/lib/pear');
?>
Example #2 Adding to the include path
Making use of the PATH_SEPARATOR constant, it is
possible to extend the include path regardless of the operating system.
In this example we add /usr/lib/pear to the end of the existing include_path.
<?php
$path = '/usr/lib/pear';
set_include_path(get_include_path() . PATH_SEPARATOR . $path);
?>
If you find that this function is failing for you, and you're not sure why, you may have set your php include path in your sites's conf file in Apache (this may be true of .htaccess as well)
So to get it to work, comment out any "php_value include_path" type lines in your Apache conf file, and you should be able to set it now in your php code.
It appears that relative paths are allowed:
set_include_path( '..' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'source');
require_once( 'Foo.class.php');
In order to use .htaccess files to set the include path, PHP must be installed as an Apache module. If PHP is compiled as a CGI binary, you can set the include path in a custom php.ini file (if, for example, you're being hosted somewhere and don't have access to the main php.ini file. Note that custom php.ini files don't affect subdirectories in the way that .htaccess files do, so you'll need to put your custom php.ini file in any subdirectories as well.
Can be useful to check the value of the constant PATH_SEPARATOR.
<?php
if ( ! defined( "PATH_SEPARATOR" ) ) {
if ( strpos( $_ENV[ "OS" ], "Win" ) !== false )
define( "PATH_SEPARATOR", ";" );
else define( "PATH_SEPARATOR", ":" );
}
?>
For older versions of php, PATH_SEPARATOR is not defined.
If it is so, we must check what kind of OS is on the web-server and define PATH_SEPARATOR properly
If you want to include files with their absolute path without changing the current include path, you can use the magic constant __DIR__ . For example:
<?php include(__DIR__.'/file.php'); ?>
It is available since PHP 5.3.
You can also add several paths in one set_include_path separating them by ':'.
ex : set_include_path('/home/mysite/includes1:/home/mysite/includes2')
