The realpath() function in PHP is an inbuilt function which is used to return the canonicalized absolute pathname.
The realpath() function removes all symbolic links such as ‘/./’ ‘/../’ and extra ‘/’ and returns the absolute pathname.
The path is sent as a parameter to the realpath() function and it returns the absolute pathname on success and a False on failure.
Syntax:
realpath(path)
Parameters Used:
The realpath() function in PHP accepts only one parameter.
- path : It is a mandatory parameter which specifies the symbolic path whose absolute path the user wants to know.
Return Value:
It returns the absolute pathname on success and a False on failure.
Errors And Exception
- The realpath() function returns False if the running script does not have executable permissions on all directories in the hierarchy.
- The function realpath() will not work for a file which is inside a Phar as such a path is not a real path.
- Some filesystem functions may return unexpected results for files which are larger than 2GB since PHP’s integer type is signed and many platforms use 32bit integers.
Examples:
Input : echo realpath("gfg.txt");
Output : C:\xampp\htdocs\filehandling\gfg.txt
Input : chdir('/docs/assignment/');
echo realpath('./../../gfg/articles');
Output : /gfg/articles
Below programs illustrate the realpath() function.
Suppose there is a file named “gfg.txt”
Program 1
<?php // returning absolute path // using realpath() function echo realpath("gfg.txt"); ?> |
Output:
C:\xampp\htdocs\filehandling\gfg.txt
Program 2
<?php // using chdir() to change directory chdir('/docs/assignment/'); // returning absolute path using realpath() function echo realpath('./../../gfg/articles'); ?> |
Output:
/gfg/articles
