What are the limitations of PHP file access outside of the htdocs folder?

When accessing files outside of the htdocs folder in PHP, there are security limitations in place to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive files on the server. To overcome this limitation, you can use symbolic links to create a virtual link to the desired folder within the htdocs directory. This way, you can access the files as if they were located within the htdocs folder. 

// Create a symbolic link to the desired folder within the htdocs directory
symlink('/path/to/external/folder', $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/external_folder');

// Access files within the external folder using the symbolic link
$file = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/external_folder/file.txt';
$data = file_get_contents($file);
echo $data;

Keywords

PHP file access htdocs folder limitations security

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