What's the difference between using dirname and not

[terryds]

What's the difference between

 

require_once( dirname(__FILE__) . '/file.php');

 

and

 

require_once('file.php');

 

 

Any difference ?

[Ingolme]

In the first case, it will load file.php from the directory that this file is in. In the second case, it will load file.php from the directory of the file that included this one.

 

Here's an example:

index.php

 

<?php include 'files/a.php'; ?>

files/a.php

 

<?phpinclude 'b.php';include dirname(__FILE__) . '/b.php';?>

b.php

 

<?php echo 'This file was loaded from the root directory. '; ?>

files/b.php

 

<?php echo 'This file was loaded from the files directory. '; ?>

 

If you run index.php it will output:

 

 

This file was loaded from the root directory. This file was loaded from the files directory.