What role does the safe mode setting play in directory access in PHP?

Safe mode in PHP restricts the access that PHP scripts have to files and directories on the server. This can prevent potential security vulnerabilities by limiting the files that scripts can interact with. However, safe mode has been deprecated in PHP 5.3.0 and removed in PHP 5.4.0, so it is no longer recommended to rely on safe mode for directory access restrictions.

// Example of using safe mode setting in PHP (deprecated)
ini_set('safe_mode', '1');