Difference Between getcwd() and dirname(__FILE__) ? Which should I use?

by

__FILE__ is a magic constant containing the full path to the file you are executing. If you are inside an include, its path will be the contents of __FILE__.

So with this setup:

/folder/random/foo.php 

<?php
echo getcwd() . "\n";
echo dirname(__FILE__) . "\n" ;
echo "-------\n";
include 'bar/bar.php';

/folder/random/bar/bar.php 

<?php
echo getcwd() . "\n";
echo dirname(__FILE__) . "\n";

You get this output: 

/folder/random
/folder/random
-------
/folder/random
/folder/random/bar

So getcwd() returns the directory where you started executing, while dirname(__FILE__) is file-dependent.

On my webserver, getcwd() returns the location of the file that originally started executing. Using the CLI it is equal to what you would get if you executed pwd. This is supported by the documentation of the CLI SAPI and a comment on the getcwd manual page:

the CLI SAPI does – contrary to other SAPIs – NOT automatically change the current working directory to the one the started script resides in.

So like: 

thom@griffin /home/thom $ echo "<?php echo getcwd() . '\n' ?>" >> test.php
thom@griffin /home/thom $ php test.php 
/home/thom
thom@griffin /home/thom $ cd ..
thom@griffin /home $ php thom/test.php 
/home

Of course, see also the manual at http://php.net/manual/en/function.getcwd.php

UPDATE: Since PHP 5.3.0 you can also use the magic constant __DIR__ which is equivalent to dirname(__FILE__).

More Related Contents:

  1. How to [recursively] Zip a directory in PHP? [duplicate]
  2. How do I use filesystem functions in PHP, using UTF-8 strings?
  3. Getting the names of all files in a directory with PHP
  4. List all files in one directory PHP [duplicate]
  5. Listing all the folders subfolders and files in a directory using php
  6. PHP list of specific files in a directory
  7. PHP list all files in directory [duplicate]
  8. PHP – Move a file into a different folder on the server
  9. Count how many files in directory PHP
  10. Sort and display directory list alphabetically using opendir() in php
  11. Create a folder if it doesn’t already exist
  12. PHP read sub-directories and loop through files how to?
  13. Deleting all files from a folder using PHP?
  14. How to make g++ search for header files in a specific directory?
  15. How can I use PHP to check if a directory is empty?
  16. php creating zips without path to files inside the zip
  17. How to delete a folder with contents using PHP [duplicate]
  18. PHP recursive directory path
  19. ERROR 403 in loading resources like CSS and JS in my index.php
  20. Get parent directory of running script
  21. Why is it whenever I use scandir() I receive periods at the beginning of the array?
  22. How to find all links / pages on a website
  23. Get the hierarchy of a directory with PHP
  24. How to get the newest file in a directory in php
  25. How to check if directory contents has changed with PHP?
  26. PHP – Listing all directories and sub-directories recursively in drop down menu [duplicate]
  27. PHP directory list from remote server
  28. Iterate through folders, then subfolders and print filenames with path to text file
  29. Using scandir() to find folders in a directory (PHP)
  30. Batch file – Write list of files to variable

Leave a Comment