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Last updated: Fri, 06 Nov 2009

getcwd

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

getcwd — Gets the current working directory

Description

string getcwd ( void )

Gets the current working directory.

Return Values

Returns the current working directory on success, or FALSE on failure.

On some Unix variants, getcwd() will return FALSE if any one of the parent directories does not have the readable or search mode set, even if the current directory does. See chmod() for more information on modes and permissions.

Examples

Example #1 getcwd() example


<?php

// current directory
echo getcwd() . "\n";

chdir('cvs');

// current directory
echo getcwd() . "\n";

?>

The above example will output something similar to:

/home/didou
/home/didou/cvs


In response to myself: that function will not work for cases like:

/usr/bin$: /home/johndoe/Work/script.php

So here's a better and simpler way (I think this one works for all cases)

<?php

function get_file_dir() {

    global $argv;

    return realpath($argv[0]);

}

?>

Knock yourself out :)

znupi69NOSPAMHERE at gmail dot com
02-Mar-2008 03:01


When running PHP on the command line, if you want to include another file which is in the same directory as the main script, doing just

<?php

include './otherfile.php';

?>

might not work, if you run your script like this:

/$ /path/to/script.php

because the current working dir will be set to '/', and the file '/otherfile.php' does not exist, because it is in '/path/to/otherfile.php'.

So, to get the directory in which the script resides, you can use this function:

<?php

function get_file_dir() {

    global $argv;

    $dir = dirname(getcwd() . '/' . $argv[0]);

    $curDir = getcwd();

    chdir($dir);

    $dir = getcwd();

    chdir($curDir);

    return $dir;

}

?>

So you can use it like this:

<?php

include get_file_dir() . '/otherfile.php';

// or even..

chdir(get_file_dir());

include './otherfile.php';

?>

Spent some time thinking this one out, maybe it helps someone :)

dale3h
08-Feb-2008 07:18


In reply to leonbrussels at gmail dot com, the PHP function realpath() does this for you.

leonbrussels at gmail dot com
17-Dec-2007 04:10


This is a function to convert a path which looks something like this:



/home/www/somefolder/../someotherfolder/../



To a proper directory path:



<?php



function simplify_path($path) {



//saves our current working directory to a variable

$oldcwd = getcwd();

//changes the directory to the one to convert

//$path is the directory to convert (clean up), handed over to the //function as a string



chdir($path);

return gstr_replace('\\', '/', getcwd());



//change the cwd back to the old value to not interfere with the script

chdir($oldcwd);



}



This function is really useful if you want to compare two filepaths which are not necesarily in a "cleaned up" state. It works in *NIX and WINDOWS alike



?>

ab5602 at wayne dot edu
30-Sep-2007 05:33


If getcwd() returns nothing for you under Solaris with an NFS mounted subdirectory, you are running into an OS bug that is supposedly fixed in recent versions of Solaris 10.  This same OS bug effects the include() and require() functions as well.

troy dot cregger at gmail dot com
26-Jan-2007 08:10


Take care if you use getcwd() in file that you'll need to include (using include, require, or *_once) in a script located outside of the same directory tree. 



example: 

<?php

//in /var/www/main_document_root/include/MySQL.inc.php

if (strpos(getcwd(),'main_')>0) {

  //code to set up main DB connection

}

?>



<?php

//in home/cron_user/maintenance_scripts/some_maintenance_script.php

require_once ('/var/www/main_document_root/include/MySQL.inc.php');

?>



In the above example, the database connection will not be made because the call to getcwd() returns the path relative to the calling script ( /home/cron_user/maintenance_scripts ) NOT relative to the file where the getcwd() function is called.

mark dot phpnetspam at mhudson dot net
03-Nov-2006 09:42


This function is often used in conjuction with basename(), i.e.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.basename.php

hodgman at ali dot com dot au
07-Sep-2006 02:58


I use this code to replicate the pushd and popd DOS commands in PHP:



<?php

$g_DirStack = array();

function pushd( $dir )

{

    global $g_DirStack;

    array_push( $g_DirStack, getcwd() );

    chdir( $dir );

}

function popd( )

{

    global $g_DirStack;

    $dir = array_pop( $g_DirStack );

    assert( $dir !== null );

    chdir( $dir );

}

?>



This allows you to change the current directory with pushd, then use popd to "undo" the directory change when you're done.

emailfire at gmail dot com
08-Dec-2005 02:57


To get the username of the account:



<?php

$dir = getcwd();

$part = explode('/', $dir);

$username = $part[1];

?>



If current directory is '/home/mike/public_html/' it would return mike.

memandeemail at gmail dot com
07-Dec-2005 11:48


Some server's has security options to block the getcwd()



Alternate option:



str_replace($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'],'', $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);

marcus at synchromedia dot co dot uk
04-May-2005 03:41


"On some Unix variants, getcwd() will return FALSE if any one of the parent directories does not have the readable or search mode set, even if the current directory does."



Just so you know, MacOS X is one of these variants (at least 10.4 is for me). You can make it work by applying 'chmod a+rx' to all folders from your site folder upwards.

vermicin at antispam dot gmail dot com
27-Jan-2005 11:48


If your PHP cli binary is built as a cgi binary (check with php_sapi_name), the cwd functions differently than you might expect. 



say you have a script /usr/local/bin/purge

you are in /home/username 



php CLI: getcwd() gives you /home/username

php CGI: getcwd() gives you /usr/local/bin



This can trip you up if you're writing command line scripts with php. You can override the CGI behavior by adding -C to the php call: 



#!/usr/local/bin/php -Cq



and then getcwd() behaves as it does in the CLI-compiled version.

manux at manux dot org
22-Jun-2004 04:44


watch out:

working directory, and thus:

getcwd () 

is "/" while being into a register'ed shutdown function!!!

dave at corecomm dot us
10-Dec-2003 06:14


getcwd() returns the path of the "main" script referenced in the URL.



dirname(__FILE__) will return the path of the script currently executing.



I had written a script that required several class definition scripts from the same directory. It retrieved them based on filename matches and used getcwd to figure out where they were.



Didn't work so well when I needed to call that first script from a new file in a different directory.

fvu at wanadoo dot nl
24-Nov-2003 01:50


Make sure to lowercase the result before comparing Windows paths, because this function returns ambiguous results on Windows.  From within Apache, the returned path is lowercase, while from the command line interface (CLI) the returned path uses the 'real' Windows pathname.  For example, running the 'print getcwd();' command from 'C:\Program Files' returns either



   c:\program files   (Apache)

   C:\Program Files   (CLI)



When the directory is specified using chdir(), getcwd() uses the exact chdir argument.  For example:



   <?php chdir('C:\\PrOgRaM fIlEs'); print getcwd(); ?>



outputs:



   C:\PrOgRaM fIlEs   (Apache & CLI)



The following code can be used to return a unambiguous lowercased cwd when running on Windows:



   <?php $sCwd = (substr(PHP_OS, 0, 3) == 'WIN') ? strtolower(getcwd()) : getcwd(); ?>

raja at rajashahed dot com
06-Nov-2003 06:21


This is  current working directory. X example, your document root is c:\Inetpub\www\htdocs. When You need to know what is your doc_root; /* Like ask yourself   your name ;)*/



$_cur_dir = getcwd();

echo "My doc_root is  $_cur_dir ";

// it prints out : My doc_root is c:\Inetpub\www\htdocs



/* Usually you need it after using  chdir() to know what is 

running in current directory */

Regards

Raja

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