What are the best practices for handling file system functions in PHP to prevent errors related to capitalization discrepancies?

When working with file system functions in PHP, it is important to be consistent with the capitalization of file paths to prevent errors related to case sensitivity. To ensure uniformity, you can use the `realpath()` function to normalize the file path before performing any file system operations.

// Normalize file path to prevent capitalization discrepancies
$file_path = 'path/to/file.txt';
$normalized_path = realpath($file_path);

// Perform file system operation using the normalized path
if (file_exists($normalized_path)) {
    // File exists, proceed with operations
    // Example: read the file contents
    $file_contents = file_get_contents($normalized_path);
} else {
    // File does not exist
    echo 'File not found';
}