use absolute or relative path?

Question

in my config.php where i have all constants i set the PATH to a absolute path.

but this means that when i move my application folder i have to change this path.

i wondered if its better to set a relative path, in that way whenever i move my application between production and development folder, i dont have to change it.

how do you guys do when you move between folders?

Answer 1

The best way I've found is to do the following:

define("PATH", realpath(dirname(__FILE__)));

That gives you the directory of the current file. If you do this in your settings/bootstrap/init file, you'll have it available to your application, and it will work for any file system.

Answer 2

__FILE__ is your friend.

Answer 3

define('BASE_PATH', dirname(realpath(__FILE__)));

This will make your scripts more portable.

Include a file like this

include BASE_PATH . 'includes/header.php';