In the context of PHP development, what are the implications of using relative file paths versus absolute file paths?

When working with file paths in PHP development, using absolute file paths is generally more reliable and less error-prone compared to relative file paths. Absolute file paths provide a specific path from the root directory of the server, ensuring that the file is always accessed from the same location regardless of the current working directory. On the other hand, relative file paths are dependent on the current working directory, which can lead to issues when the script is executed from different locations.

// Using absolute file path
$file = '/var/www/html/project/file.txt';
$data = file_get_contents($file);
echo $data;