It should probably be expressly noted that tilde expansion is not performed by realpath.
(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
realpath — 返回规范化的绝对路径名
$path
)
realpath() 扩展所有的符号连接并且处理输入的
path 中的 '/./', '/../' 以及多余的 '/'
并返回规范化后的绝对路径名。返回的路径中没有符号连接，'/./'
或 '/../' 成分。
path要检查的路径。
Note:
Whilst a path must be supplied, the value can be blank or
NULLIn these cases, the value is interpreted as the current directory.
Returns the canonicalized absolute pathname on success. The resulting path will have no symbolic link, '/./' or '/../' components.
realpath() 失败时返回 FALSE，比如说文件不存在的话。
Note:
The running script must have executable permissions on all directories in the hierarchy, otherwise realpath() will return
FALSE.
Note: 因为 PHP 的整数类型是有符号整型而且很多平台使用 32 位整型，对 2GB 以上的文件，一些文件系统函数可能返回无法预期的结果 。
| 版本 | 说明 |
|---|---|
| 5.3.0 |
在之前的版本中，在 *BSD
系统上，如果仅仅是 path 不存在的话，realpath()
并不会像其它系统那样返回 FALSE。
|
| 5.0.0 |
在此之前的版本中，如果 path 传入了空或者
NULL，将导致 realpath() 返回脚本当前的目录。
|
Example #1 realpath() 例子
<?php
chdir('/var/www/');
echo realpath('./../../etc/passwd');
?>
以上例程会输出：
/etc/passwd
Example #2 Windows 上的 realpath()
在 Windows 上，realpath() 会将 unix 风格的路径改成 Windows 风格的。
<?php
echo realpath('/windows/system32');
?>
以上例程会输出：
C:\WINDOWS\System32
It should probably be expressly noted that tilde expansion is not performed by realpath.
Be aware that realpath() doesn't work with hidden Windows UNC paths, eg \\servername\share$\folder\blah.txt but other PHP file-functions can access that file fine.
Beware of relative symbolic links like this one (ext4 file system on Ubuntu) :
vincent@vincent:~/Bureau/dirscan$ readlink sandbox/roulant/voiture/cabriolet/ln-loop-relative
../..
In this case, realpath may return false :
<?php
var_dump(realpath('sandbox/roulant/voiture/cabriolet/ln-loop-relative'));
// => string(44) "/home/vincent/Bureau/dirscan/sandbox/roulant"
var_dump(realpath('sandbox/roulant/voiture/cabriolet/ln-loop-relative/moto'));
// => bool(false)
?>
But you can fix it by clearing the realpath cache, this way :
<?php
var_dump(realpath('sandbox/roulant/voiture/cabriolet/ln-loop-relative'));
clearstatcache(true);
var_dump(realpath('sandbox/roulant/voiture/cabriolet/ln-loop-relative/moto'));
// => string(49) "/home/vincent/Bureau/dirscan/sandbox/roulant/moto"
?>
It's strange, but realpath('C:/wamp/www/sdo-test/data') sometime retuns false, use // or \ instead.
When using realpath (and similar functions) remember that PHP will take in to account open_basedir restrictions. So, if you do something like:
<?php
// test.php in httpdocs folder
$path = realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../application');
?>
where your open_basedir setting is set to the httpdocs folder and tmp, this will return false. You must set it to the level above (or off) for this to work.
Needed a method to normalize a virtual path that could handle .. references that go beyond the initial folder reference. So I created the following.
<?php
function normalizePath($path)
{
$parts = array();// Array to build a new path from the good parts
$path = str_replace('\\', '/', $path);// Replace backslashes with forwardslashes
$path = preg_replace('/\/+/', '/', $path);// Combine multiple slashes into a single slash
$segments = explode('/', $path);// Collect path segments
$test = '';// Initialize testing variable
foreach($segments as $segment)
{
if($segment != '.')
{
$test = array_pop($parts);
if(is_null($test))
$parts[] = $segment;
else if($segment == '..')
{
if($test == '..')
$parts[] = $test;
if($test == '..' || $test == '')
$parts[] = $segment;
}
else
{
$parts[] = $test;
$parts[] = $segment;
}
}
}
return implode('/', $parts);
}
?>
Will convert /path/to/test/.././..//..///..///../one/two/../three/filename
to ../../one/three/filename
Note: If you use this to check if a file exists, it's path will be cached, and returns true even if the file is removed (use file_exists instead).
If using Windows junction.exe to create a symlink, it seems impossible to get the real path to the file. Even __FILE__ contains the symlinked path, not the actual path of the file.
Note that under Windows, a slash-rooted path will resolve on the local drive, and *not* necessarily C:\.
For example:
M:\>php -r "print realpath('/AUTOEXEC.BAT');"
[prints nothing, because there is no M:\AUTOEXEC.BAT]
But:
M:\>C:
C:\>php -r "print realpath('/AUTOEXEC.BAT');"
C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
Same script, different response depending on current drive.
I'm inclined to argue that this function *should* use the value of %SystemDrive% as the "slash root" base.
Here is a small and handy method to calculate the relative path from $from to $to. Note: On Windows it does not work when $from and $to are on different drives.
<?php
function relativePath($from, $to, $ps = DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR)
{
$arFrom = explode($ps, rtrim($from, $ps));
$arTo = explode($ps, rtrim($to, $ps));
while(count($arFrom) && count($arTo) && ($arFrom[0] == $arTo[0]))
{
array_shift($arFrom);
array_shift($arTo);
}
return str_pad("", count($arFrom) * 3, '..'.$ps).implode($ps, $arTo);
}
?>
please note that realpath is a performance killer
on my sys listing 100 files with realpath takes 0.2 sec (core2quad 6600 x64 4gbddr2)
in most cases, its better to use getcwd() instead and work with dirname() to resolve ".."
Please be aware that this function does NOT always strip a trailing slash!:
LINUX (tested with PHP 5.2.11):
---
realpath('.')
: string = "/myhttpdfolder"
realpath('./')
: string = "/myhttpdfolder"
realpath('fileadmin')
: string = "/myhttpdfolder/fileadmin"
realpath('fileadmin/')
: string = "/myhttpdfolder/fileadmin"
WINDOWS (tested with PHP 5.2.5):
---
realpath('.')
: string = "C:\\myhttpdfolder"
realpath('./')
: string = "C:\\myhttpdfolder\\"
realpath('fileadmin')
: string = "C:\\myhttpdfolder\\fileadmin"
realpath('fileadmin/')
: string = "C:\\myhttpdfolder\\fileadmin\\"
There is no native function that does the opposite.
Pure-php implementation:
<?php
function getRelativePath( $path, $compareTo ) {
// clean arguments by removing trailing and prefixing slashes
if ( substr( $path, -1 ) == '/' ) {
$path = substr( $path, 0, -1 );
}
if ( substr( $path, 0, 1 ) == '/' ) {
$path = substr( $path, 1 );
}
if ( substr( $compareTo, -1 ) == '/' ) {
$compareTo = substr( $compareTo, 0, -1 );
}
if ( substr( $compareTo, 0, 1 ) == '/' ) {
$compareTo = substr( $compareTo, 1 );
}
// simple case: $compareTo is in $path
if ( strpos( $path, $compareTo ) === 0 ) {
$offset = strlen( $compareTo ) + 1;
return substr( $path, $offset );
}
$relative = array( );
$pathParts = explode( '/', $path );
$compareToParts = explode( '/', $compareTo );
foreach( $compareToParts as $index => $part ) {
if ( isset( $pathParts[$index] ) && $pathParts[$index] == $part ) {
continue;
}
$relative[] = '..';
}
foreach( $pathParts as $index => $part ) {
if ( isset( $compareToParts[$index] ) && $compareToParts[$index] == $part ) {
continue;
}
$relative[] = $part;
}
return implode( '/', $relative );
}
?>
Some tests forr phpunit:
<?php
static public function getRelativePathProvider( ) {
return array(
array(
'/srv/foo/bar',
'/srv',
'foo/bar',
),
array(
'/srv/foo/bar',
'/srv/',
'foo/bar',
),
array(
'/srv/foo/bar/',
'/srv',
'foo/bar',
),
array(
'/srv/foo/bar/',
'/srv/',
'foo/bar',
),
array(
'/srv/foo/bar',
'/srv/test',
'../foo/bar',
),
array(
'/srv/foo/bar',
'/srv/test/fool',
'../../foo/bar',
),
array(
'/srv/mad/xp/mad/model/static/css/uni-form.css',
'/srv/mad/xp/liria/',
'../mad/model/static/css/uni-form.css',
),
);
}
/**
* @dataProvider getRelativePathProvider
*/
public function testGetRelativePath( $path, $compareTo, $expected ) {
$result = getRelativePath( $path, $compareTo );
$this->assertEquals( $expected, $result );
}
?>
You may want to change script behavior depending on the way how its code is invoked (included by another script / called directly). Following code do the job
<?php
if (realpath(__FILE__) == realpath($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'])) {
// called directly
...
} else {
// included
...
}
?>
if you just need to resolve a path that is not on your system, or you don't want to chdir to it, a simple regular expression can do the trick:
<?php
$p = '/cool/yeah/../zzz';
$p = preg_replace('/\w+\/\.\.\//', '', $p);
echo $p; //outputs /cool/zzz
?>
<?php
Class RealPath
{
private $ServerPath;
private $ScriptPath;
private $AddSlashEnd;
function __construct()
{
$this->AddSlashEnd = "";
$this->ServerPath = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
$this->ScriptPath = substr(dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']), strlen($this->ServerPath));
}
private function Server($adress)
{
$ThisPath = @realpath($adress);
$ThisPathLength = strlen($ThisPath);
return substr($ThisPath, strlen($this->ServerPath), $ThisPathLength);
}
public function Absolute($adress)
{
return $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . $this->Server($adress) . $this->AddSlashEnd;
}
public function RelativeServer($adress)
{
return $this->Server($adress) . $this->AddSlashEnd;
}
public function RelativeScript($adress)
{
$ScriptExplode = explode("/", $this->ScriptPath);
$ServerExplode = explode("/", $this->Server($adress));
$TmpCount = $ScriptCount = count($ScriptExplode);
$ServerCount = count($ServerExplode);
$ReturnPath = "";
for($i = 1; $i < $TmpCount; $i++)
{
if($ScriptExplode[$i] == $ServerExplode[$i])
--$ScriptCount;
else
break;
}
for($i = 1; $i < $ScriptCount; $i++)
$ReturnPath .= "/..";
for($i = $TmpCount - $ScriptCount + 1; $i < $ServerCount; $i++)
$ReturnPath .= "/" . $ServerExplode[$i];
return $ReturnPath . $this->AddSlashEnd;
}
public function AddSlash($value)
{
if(is_bool($value))
{
$this->AddSlashEnd = ($value)? "/" : "";
return true;
}
else
return false;
}
}
example:
$ObjectPath = new RealPath;
$ObjectPath->RelativeScript("../a/b../c/d/f../g../h");
for those who want to start realpath on windows platform and looking for example.
OR
for those who want to run zend framework on windows platform using the quick start guide
<?php
define( "_CUR_OS", substr( php_uname( ), 0, 7 ) == "Windows" ? "Win" : "_Nix" );
function checkCurrentOS( $_OS )
{
if ( strcmp( $_OS, _CUR_OS ) == 0 ) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
// public/index.php
//
// Step 1: APPLICATION_PATH is a constant pointing to our
// application/subdirectory. We use this to add our "library" directory
// to the include_path, so that PHP can find our Zend Framework classes.
if ( checkCurrentOS( "Win" ) ) {
$mappath = '/' . str_replace( "\\", "/", str_replace( "C:\\","", dirname(__FILE__) ) );
}
else {
$mappath = dirname(__FILE__);
}
define('APPLICATION_PATH', realpath( $mappath . '/../_privateadico/application/') );
set_include_path(
APPLICATION_PATH . '/../library'
. PATH_SEPARATOR . get_include_path()
);
?>
I took the index.php for zend which is was written for unix and ported it to windows.
The porting problem was with realpath function not understanding dirname(__FILE__) syntex on windows
If you need to resolve a url against a base url, as the browser does with anchor tags, then realpath won't help, because it's not on your file system.
This function does that:
<?php
function resolve_href ($base, $href) {
// href="" ==> current url.
if (!$href) {
return $base;
}
// href="http://..." ==> href isn't relative
$rel_parsed = parse_url($href);
if (array_key_exists('scheme', $rel_parsed)) {
return $href;
}
// add an extra character so that, if it ends in a /, we don't lose the last piece.
$base_parsed = parse_url("$base ");
// if it's just server.com and no path, then put a / there.
if (!array_key_exists('path', $base_parsed)) {
$base_parsed = parse_url("$base/ ");
}
// href="/ ==> throw away current path.
if ($href{0} === "/") {
$path = $href;
} else {
$path = dirname($base_parsed['path']) . "/$href";
}
// bla/./bloo ==> bla/bloo
$path = preg_replace('~/\./~', '/', $path);
// resolve /../
// loop through all the parts, popping whenever there's a .., pushing otherwise.
$parts = array();
foreach (
explode('/', preg_replace('~/+~', '/', $path)) as $part
) if ($part === "..") {
array_pop($parts);
} elseif ($part!="") {
$parts[] = $part;
}
return (
(array_key_exists('scheme', $base_parsed)) ?
$base_parsed['scheme'] . '://' . $base_parsed['host'] : ""
) . "/" . implode("/", $parts);
}
?>
[EDIT BY danbrown AT php DOT net: Code contains a bugfix supplied by (Zhenya DOT Morozov AT gmail DOT com) on 23-JAN-09, to address the following issue:
'If your path contains "0" (or any "false" string) directory name, the function removes that directory from the path.']
Because realpath() does not work on files that do not
exist, I wrote a function that does.
It replaces (consecutive) occurences of / and \\ with
whatever is in DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, and processes /. and /.. fine.
Paths returned by get_absolute_path() contain no
(back)slash at position 0 (beginning of the string) or
position -1 (ending)
<?php
function get_absolute_path($path) {
$path = str_replace(array('/', '\\'), DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $path);
$parts = array_filter(explode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $path), 'strlen');
$absolutes = array();
foreach ($parts as $part) {
if ('.' == $part) continue;
if ('..' == $part) {
array_pop($absolutes);
} else {
$absolutes[] = $part;
}
}
return implode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $absolutes);
}
?>
A test:
<?php
var_dump(get_absolute_path('this/is/../a/./test/.///is'));
?>
Returns: string(14) "this/a/test/is"
As you can so, it also produces Yoda-speak. :)
I made this function so that I could see if a user was trying to go above the current directory.
My top dir:
/var/www/dir/
User wanted
/var/www/
This comes in handy when you're making a php explorer/filemanager and you want your files in the directory above to be private.
Here it is
<?php
//usage
//$dir is the dir you are in
//$dir_top is the highest dir allowed.
//example
/*
if(above_dir('../', '/var/www/filemgr'))
die('Not allowed. Please stick to your directories');
*/
function above_dir($dir, $dir_top){
if($dir == $dir_top)
return false;
$dir = realpath($dir);
$dir_top = realpath($dir_top);
$dir = count(explode('/', $dir));
$dir_top = count(explode('/', $dir_top));
if($dir <= $dir_top){
return true;
}else{
return false;
}
}
?>
<?php
//rp like, working with absolute/relative path & a little bit shorter :p
function rp($path) {
$out=array();
foreach(explode('/', $path) as $i=>$fold){
if ($fold=='' || $fold=='.') continue;
if ($fold=='..' && $i>0 && end($out)!='..') array_pop($out);
else $out[]= $fold;
} return ($path{0}=='/'?'/':'').join('/', $out);
}
?>
Sometimes it is helpful to check for the existance of a file
which might be found by using the include_path like in
<?php
include("file_from_include_path.php");
?>
A simple function iterates the include_path and tries all
possibilites, returns translated_local_path on success or false
if not found.
<?php
function mappath($path_to_translate){
$IncludePath=explode(PATH_SEPARATOR,get_include_path());
foreach($IncludePath as $prefix){
if(substr($prefix,-1)==DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR)
$prefix=substr($prefix,0,-1);
$try_path=sprintf("%s%s%s"
,$prefix,DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR,$path_to_translate);
if(file_exists($try_path))return($try_path);
}
return false;
}
?>
Here's a little function to return the shortest relative path between dest folder and current folder (you can be replace $_SERVER['PHP_SEFL'] by your variable folder) :
<?php
// if you run in /var/www/
echo UnRealPath ('./'); // return "./"
echo UnRealPath ('./ajax-browser/AJAX-B/scripts/'); // return "./ajax-browser/AJAX-B/scripts/"
echo UnRealPath ('/var/'); // return "./../"
echo UnRealPath ('/opt/picasa/wine/'); // return "./../../opt/picasa/wine/"
function UnRealPath ($dest)
{
$Ahere = explode ('/', realpath($_SERVER['PHP_SEFL']));
$Adest = explode ('/', realpath($dest));
$result = '.'; // le chemin retouné dois forcement commancé par ./ c'est le but
while (implode ('/', $Adest) != implode ('/', $Ahere))// && count ($Adest)>0 && count($Ahere)>0 )
{
if (count($Ahere)>count($Adest))
{
array_pop($Ahere);
$result .= '/..';
}
else
{
array_pop($Adest);
}
}
return str_replace('//', '/', $result.str_replace(implode ('/', $Adest), '', realpath($dest)).(@is_dir(realpath($dest))?'/':''));
}
?>
Given real paths of two files, this function finds the relative path of one ($dest) with respect to the other ($root).
<?php
echo rel_path('a/b/c', 'd/e'); // './../../a/b/c'
echo rel_path('a/b/c', 'a/b/c/d/e'); // './../..'
echo rel_path('a/b/c/d/e', 'a/b/c'); // './d/e'
function rel_path($dest, $root = '', $dir_sep = '/')
{
$root = explode($dir_sep, $root);
$dest = explode($dir_sep, $dest);
$path = '.';
$fix = '';
$diff = 0;
for($i = -1; ++$i < max(($rC = count($root)), ($dC = count($dest)));)
{
if(isset($root[$i]) and isset($dest[$i]))
{
if($diff)
{
$path .= $dir_sep. '..';
$fix .= $dir_sep. $dest[$i];
continue;
}
if($root[$i] != $dest[$i])
{
$diff = 1;
$path .= $dir_sep. '..';
$fix .= $dir_sep. $dest[$i];
continue;
}
}
elseif(!isset($root[$i]) and isset($dest[$i]))
{
for($j = $i-1; ++$j < $dC;)
{
$fix .= $dir_sep. $dest[$j];
}
break;
}
elseif(isset($root[$i]) and !isset($dest[$i]))
{
for($j = $i-1; ++$j < $rC;)
{
$fix = $dir_sep. '..'. $fix;
}
break;
}
}
return $path. $fix;
}
?>
There might be other solutions like mine in here,
but here is one more.
This function converts Virtual Paths into Relative Paths.
I needed that at one time, and I did'nt have much luck finding a solution amongst the PHP Functions in the manual.
<?php
function GetPath($RedPath) {
if(substr($RedPath, 0, 1) == "/") {
$SysPath = dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
if(substr($RedPath, -1) == "/") $RedPath = substr($RedPath, 0, -1);
if(strlen($SysPath) == 1)
return ".".$RedPath;
elseif(strcmp($SysPath,$RedPath) == 0)
return "./";
else {
$s_tmp = split("/", $SysPath);
$r_tmp = split("/", $RedPath);
while(($r_tmp[$i] == $s_tmp[$i]) && $i < 10)
$i++;
$t_RedPath = end(split("/", $RedPath, ($i+1)));
if($i == count($s_tmp))
return "./".$t_RedPath;
else
return str_repeat("../", count($s_tmp)-$i).$t_RedPath;
}
}
else
return $RedPath;
}
?>
Here's a little function to return the relative path between two urls:
<?php
function get_relative_path($start_dir, $final_dir){
//
$firstPathParts = explode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $start_dir);
$secondPathParts = explode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $final_dir);
//
$sameCounter = 0;
for($i = 0; $i < min( count($firstPathParts), count($secondPathParts) ); $i++) {
if( strtolower($firstPathParts[$i]) !== strtolower($secondPathParts[$i]) ) {
break;
}
$sameCounter++;
}
if( $sameCounter == 0 ) {
return $final_dir;
}
//
$newPath = '';
for($i = $sameCounter; $i < count($firstPathParts); $i++) {
if( $i > $sameCounter ) {
$newPath .= DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
}
$newPath .= "..";
}
if( count($newPath) == 0 ) {
$newPath = ".";
}
for($i = $sameCounter; $i < count($secondPathParts); $i++) {
$newPath .= DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
$newPath .= $secondPathParts[$i];
}
//
return $newPath;
}
?>
This is my attempt at writing a realpath replacement. I needed to to run some Adobe code on a server with realpath disabled and this seemed to do the job. It is written for a unix server, I suppose it could be made cross platform using DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR. (With thanks to Marc Noirot for his code).
<?php
function myRealPath($path) {
// check if path begins with "/" ie. is absolute
// if it isnt concat with script path
if (strpos($path,"/") !== 0) {
$base=dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);
$path=$base."/".$path;
}
// canonicalize
$path=explode('/', $path);
$newpath=array();
for ($i=0; $i<sizeof($path); $i++) {
if ($path[$i]==='' || $path[$i]==='.') continue;
if ($path[$i]==='..') {
array_pop($newpath);
continue;
}
array_push($newpath, $path[$i]);
}
$finalpath="/".implode('/', $newpath);
// check then return valid path or filename
if (file_exists($finalpath)) {
return ($finalpath);
}
else return FALSE;
}
?>
Here's a function to canonicalize a URL containing relative paths. Ran into the problem when pulling links from a remote page.
<?php
function canonicalize($address)
{
$address = explode('/', $address);
$keys = array_keys($address, '..');
foreach($keys AS $keypos => $key)
{
array_splice($address, $key - ($keypos * 2 + 1), 2);
}
$address = implode('/', $address);
$address = str_replace('./', '', $address);
}
$url = 'http://www.example.com/something/../else';
echo canonicalize($url); //http://www.example.com/else
?>
You have a realpath.
Now you want a htmlpath.
First Suggestion:
<?php
function htmlpath($relative_path) {
$realpath=realpath($relative_path);
$htmlpath=str_replace($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'],'',$realpath);
return $htmlpath;
}
?>
But this does not work on some servers.
Second Suggestion:
<?php
function htmlpath($realpath) {
$i = substr_count($_ENV["SCRIPT_URL"],'/')."<br>";
$baserealpath=realpath(str_repeat('../',$i-1));
$htmlpath=str_replace($baserealpath,'',$realpath);
return $htmlpath;
}
?>
This function is also nice to test for security-breaches. You can forbid the script to access files below a certain directory to prevent "../../../etc/shadow" and similar attacks:
<?php
// declare the basic directory for security reasons
// Please do NOT attach a "/"-suffix !
$basedir = '/var/www/cgi-bin/scriptfolder';
// compare the entered path with the basedir
$path_parts = pathinfo($_REQUEST['file_to_get']);
if (realpath($path_parts['dirname']) != $basedir) {
/* appropriate action against crack-attempt*/
die ('coding good - h4x1ng bad!');
}
?>
The url "script.php?file_to_get=../../../etc/shadow" will now result in an error.
Sometimes you may need to refer to the absolute path of a file in your website instead of a relative path, but the realpath() function returns the path relative to the server's filesystem, not a path relative to your website root directory.
For example, realpath() may return something like this:
/home/yoursite/public_html/dir1/file.ext
You can't use this in an HTML document, because the web server will not find the file. To do so, you can use:
<?php
function htmlpath($relative_path) {
$realpath=realpath($relative_path);
$htmlpath=str_replace($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'],'',$realpath);
return $htmlpath;
}
echo '<img src="',htmlpath('../../relative/path/to/file.ext'),'" border=1>';
?>
It will return something like:
<img src="/dir1/relative/path/to/file.ext" border=1>
realpath() seems to be equivalent to ASP's Server.MapPath. On my Win2k box I have successfully used realpath() to give me the full path for a file outside of the document_root. This will be very useful in conjunction with is_dir and/or is_file, which require a full path.
mkdir (and realpath) did not work because i'd used virtual() function to replace server side include in my file.
And i've just seen that virtual() function changes the current directory ... that's why !
jerome ;)