Document Root PHP

<a href="<?php echo $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/hello.html'; ?>">go with php</a>
    <br />
<a href="/hello.html">go to with html</a>

Try this yourself and find that they are not exactly the same.

$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] renders an actual file path (on my computer running as it's own server, C:/wamp/www/

HTML's / renders the root of the server url, in my case, localhost/

But C:/wamp/www/hello.html and localhost/hello.html are in fact the same file

Server Document Root Path in PHP

$files = glob($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]."/myFolder/*");

PHP $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']

$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] returns

The document root directory under which the current script is executing, as defined in the server's configuration file.

You could use $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] or absolute paths like <a href="/nmc/Admin/LoginPage.php">Login</a>

How to get a file that's one folder above Document Root?

Use ../ to up one directory.

include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/../Controllers/MyFile.php');

How to reference to a folder that is above Document Root, in PHP?

You can use directly:

include('/home/myusername/private/config.php');

$_SERVER document root in CLI

$_SERVER contains headers which won't be available in the CLI. The web server defines the document root. In the CLI, you aren't using a web server, so there is no document root.

You can try to rely on environmental variables, assuming they are set by your shell.

For instance, PWD represents the current directory and HOME represents the user's home directory.

$pwd = getenv('PWD');
$home = getenv('HOME');

You can also use __FILE__ or __DIR__ magic constants to try and depict the path you are currently in.

What does it mean In case the PHP file is outside the document root, only its directory is scanned?

Just to clarify a couple of things in addition to Julian's answer.

The default php.ini file for the server (e.g. /path/to/default/ini/php.ini) will always be scanned, no matter where the PHP file itself is located. What happens after that depends on whether the PHP file is stored in the document root path or not.

In Document Root Path

Say you have a PHP file saved at /path/to/doc/root/another/dir/file.php.

The server will look for an ini file in the following directories:

/path/to/root/another/dir
/path/to/root/another
/path/to/root

If an ini file is found in any of those locations, they will be scanned as well as the default ini file.

Outside Document Root Path

Say you have a PHP file saved at /path/outside/doc/root/file.php.

The server will look in the following directory:

/path/outside/doc/root

If an ini file is found in this location (i.e. /path/outside/doc/root/php.ini), it will be scanned as well as the default ini file.

Document Root PHP