Relative path not working in cron PHP script

Question

If a PHP script is run as a cron script, the includes often fail if relative paths are used. For example, if you have

require_once(\'foo.php\');

Answer 1

The DIR works although it will not work on my localhost as it has a different path than my live site server. I used this to fix it.

    if(__DIR__ != '/home/absolute/path/to/current/directory'){ // path for your live server
        require_once '/relative/path/to/file';
    }else{
        require_once '/absolute/path/to/file';
    }

Answer 2

Another possibility is that the CLI version is using a different php.ini file. (By default, it'll use php-cli.ini and fallback to the standard php.ini)

Also, if you're using .htaccess files to set your library path, etc. this obviously won't work via the cli.