title: How do I set an absolute include path in PHP?
body: <p>In HTML, I can find a file starting from the <strong>web server's</strong> root folder by beginning the filepath with &quot;/&quot;. Like:</p>
  <pre><code>/images/some_image.jpg
  </code></pre>
  <p>I can put that path in any file in any subdirectory, and it will point to the right image.</p>
  <p>With PHP, I tried something similar:</p>
  <pre><code>include(&quot;/includes/header.php&quot;);
  </code></pre>
  <p>...but that doesn't work.</p>
  <p>I think that that <a href="http://us2.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.include-path" rel="noreferrer">this page</a> is saying that I can set <code>include_path</code> once and after that, it will be assumed. But I don't quite get the syntax. Both examples start with a period, and it says:</p>
  <blockquote>Using a . in the include path allows for relative includes as it means the current directory.</blockquote>
  <p>Relative includes are exactly what I <strong>don't</strong> want.</p>
  <p><strong>How do I make sure that all my includes point to the <code>root/includes</code> folder?</strong> (Bonus: what if I want to place that folder outside the public directory?)</p>
  <h2>Clarification</h2>
  <p>My development files are currently being served by XAMPP/Apache. Does that affect the absolute path? (I'm not sure yet what the production server will be.)</p>
  <h2>Update</h2>
  <p>I don't know what my problem was here. The <code>include_path</code> thing I referenced above was exactly what I was looking for, and the syntax isn't really confusing. I just tried it and it works great.</p>
  <p>One thing that occurs to me is that some people may have thought that &quot;/some/path&quot; was an &quot;absolute path&quot; because they assumed the OS was Linux. This server is Windows, so an absolute path would have to start with the drive name.</p>
  <p>Anyway, problem solved! :)</p>