php getcwd() resolving target of symlink instead of current directory

Question

As far as I am aware, php's getcwd() (and similar functions eg dirname(__FILE__)) are supposed to return the current directory of the file being executed.

If the current directory happens to be a symlink to another directory, php (presumably in conjunction with apache) is supposed to return the path showing the symlink name as the 'directory' you're in.

Example:

from /var/www,
directory 'one' contains index.php
symlink 'two' points at directory 'one'

one/index.php: <?php echo getcwd(); ?>

Accessing http://localhost/two/index.php in a browser shows /var/www/one.

I would expect it to show /var/www/two

Does anyone know if this is a php or apache setting I can change? Or am I unable to use symlinks in this manner?

Affenpinscher

Did you figure it out? I'm interested in this same use case. – Ceolaceorl

Is Apache configured to follow symLinks? Like Options FollowSymLinks – Imprint

I don't think this has anything to do with Apache. It's a PHP "feature". If you enter this at the command line mkdir a; ln -s a b; php -r 'chdir( "b" ); echo getcwd();', php will show you that you're in a directory called 'a', even though you chdir()ed to 'b'. – Leann

Answer 1

OK figured it out. Use $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'] if over the browser. Over the command line, you can get the current symlinked directory using exec("pwd")

Ceolaceorl

For just directory, without file name: dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']); – Brassard