How do I access files placed outside of the site root?

Question

I have fried my brain all day on this. Researching SO until my eyes are bleary...I need to know: How do I access files placed outside the site root?

Background: Apache 2.0 dedicated server running Linux.

Code: PHP and MySQL

Reason: I want the files to be secured against typing in the file path and filename into a browser.

This can't be that difficult...but my splitting head says otherwise. Any help would be absolutely appreciated.

Answer 1

Have a look at the answers to this question, which seem to be doing more or less the same thing.

A quick summary: readfile() or file_get_contents() are what you're after. This example comes from the readfile() page:

<?php
$file = 'monkey.gif';

if (file_exists($file)) {
    header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
    header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($file));
    header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');
    header('Expires: 0');
    header('Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0');
    header('Pragma: public');
    header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($file));
    ob_clean();
    flush();
    readfile($file);
    exit;
}
?>

I don't recommend allowing the $file variable to be set using user input! Think about where the filenames are coming from before arbitrarily returning files in the response.