[Discuss] php question. change directory to executing script.

[betsys at gmail.com (Betsy Schwartz)]

I would also, always spell out explicitly the full path of the files
you want to delete.
 If they're files you are creating, you should be able to determine
that information programatically.

If you make an assumption, there will be some edge condition you
haven't thought of that will bite you.

On Wed, Dec 20, 2017 at 9:57 AM, Eric Chadbourne
<sillystring at protonmail.com> wrote:
> Excellent points Mike, particularly on symlinks.  I'll make it a variable as suggested.
>
> Thanks,
> Eric Chadbourne
>
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: Re: [Discuss] php question. change directory to executing script.
>> Local Time: December 19, 2017 10:52 AM
>> UTC Time: December 19, 2017 3:52 PM
>> From: smallm at sdf.org
>> To: Eric Chadbourne <sillystring at protonmail.com>
>> BLU <discuss at blu.org>
>>
>> Eric Chadbourne sillystring at protonmail.com writes:
>>
>>> Hi All,
>>> I have a little function that needs to delete some files. I don't
>>> want it to delete them from the directory of my user, but in the
>>> directory of the script.
>>> For example from terminal:
>>> cd $HOME
>>> php /path/to/script/foo.php // will execute foo in home
>>> But I want it to execute foo in /script.
>>> So in the function I told it to change working directory to script path.
>>> chdir(dirname(FILE));
>>> Am I missing something or is this OK? Is it evil to do such a thing?
>>>
>>> Could your script ever be a symlink? Seems to me I've seen this go wrong
>>> or at least get confusing (yes, it seems not uncommon to want to run
>>> things in the script's directory - each place I've worked at the last 20
>>> years has done it, both under Linux and under Windows) when symlinks are
>>> involved.
>>>
>>> What about passing an argument with the directory to execute in. Then at
>>> least you have outside control. It's kind of the moral equivalent of a
>>> local (or really a function argument) vs. global variable, in the sense
>>> that your script's directory is like a global in that it comes from the
>>> surrounding environment and isn't stated explicitly vs. a command
>>> argument which would be more like (and end up in) a local variable.
>>>
>>> It it's clumsy to run that way you can always use an alias.
>>>
>>> On the other hand if its your own thing make it as simple as works for
>>> you. Maybe you don't care about symlinks, and it's small enough that
>>> "global variables" are appropriate. I just recall at the Windows job
>>> when the program got big new programmers were a bit puzzled about which
>>> directory it ran in and where it found its configuration files. It was
>>> yet another bit of annoying incidental knowledge to be passed on that
>>> the "working directory" wasn't the normal working directory but the
>>> program's directory, or subdirectories relative to that.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Mike Small
>>> smallm at sdf.org
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