linking to files above the root PHP

Question

I recently switched servers. From shared w/ control panel to a VPS

On my old server this PHP worked:

header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename= 'welcome.doc'");
header('Content-type: application/msword');
readfile("/home/abcme/aboveroot/admin/welcome.doc");

The same folder structure exists in the new serve. There is a folder above home named aboveroot and a folder in that called admin and a file in that called welcome.doc

I changed the /home/abcme so that "abcme" is the correct new accountname

Now I get an error saying the file cannot be found. Is there something that needs to be enabled in my server or what else might explain this?

If it's above home wouldn't the path be `/aboveroot/admin/welcome.doc`? — jeremyharris, Aug 02 '12 at 20:03
This might be a [duplicate](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2370053/how-to-include-file-outside-document-root). — Matt, Aug 02 '12 at 20:03
You could use getcwd() to get the path where you have the script and check if the file structure is ok, then correct the path. — juanrossi, Aug 02 '12 at 20:05

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 02 '12 at 20:06

Based on what you said the structure would be like so:

>aboveroot 
  -home
  -admin
    -welcome.doc

So your header would say (assuming that /aboveroot is your webroot, which doesn't seem the case given the name):

header("Content-disposition: attachment; filename= 'welcome.doc'");
header('Content-type: application/msword');
readfile("/aboveroot/admin/welcome.doc");

linking to files above the root PHP

1 Answers1