Methods for accessing files outside root

Question

Hi all :D My file structure is as follow:

/site
  /public_html
    /1
      /2
        /3
          read.php
  /file
    file.doc

For security reasons, I moved my docs outside public_html folder. Inside read.php, I am accessing file.doc via code "../../../../file/file.doc" Are there other methods (shortcuts?) to access the doc? I call on a lot of files from many locations. This code is too long and easy to lose track on how many ../ I need.

Answer 1

If your virtual host is rooted on /site/public_html you can shorten it a little by using $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']; this should work for all scripts underneath the document root in the same manner.

$file = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']. '/../file/file.doc';

Answer 2

You can set a ROOT constant that points to the root:

# on read.php
define('ROOT', dirname(dirname(dirname(dirname(dirname(__FILE__))))).DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;

and then just call:

# anywhere else
include ROOT.'file/file.doc';