What are the best practices for handling missing important files in PHP?

When important files are missing in PHP, it is important to handle this situation gracefully to prevent errors or unexpected behavior in your application. One common approach is to use conditional statements to check for the existence of the file before attempting to include or require it. If the file is missing, you can display an error message or redirect the user to a custom error page.

$file_path = 'path/to/missing_file.php';

if (file_exists($file_path)) {
    require_once $file_path;
} else {
    // Handle missing file error
    echo 'Error: The required file is missing.';
}