PHP require_once failed to open stream permission denied

Question

I keep getting the error below even after changing the permissions of the folder. I don't know what to do. Not sure why. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm working with Cent-os server and this is a php script.

require_once(mysql_connect.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: Permission denied Date/Time: 7-28-2009 20:09:44

Answer 1

Things to check:

• The web server user (often apache) executing the web script needs read ("r") permission on the included file. The web server user is usually different than the user who wrote the files.
• Check that all the parent directories of the included file have the appropriate execute ("x") permission set.
• The open_basedir php.ini setting. If this is configured to be on, you might have a limited set of file opening permissions.
• Your SELINUX settings.

Answer 2

The problem was not a permission issue. The file I was including was named mysql_connect.php which I think conflicts with either one of mysql's files or functions so the server was confusing my file for that and wouldn't require_once() or include_once() or include() the file. Hence the permission denied fatal error. I change the name of the file and all is well. Thanks to you all for trying to help me out.