Case-inconsistency of PHP file paths on Mac / MAMP?

Question

I\'m developing a PHP program on MAMP, and just realized the following screwy behavior:

echo \"
PATH = \".dirname(__FILE__);
include \'include.php\         


        

Answer 1

This is the code I use to get the correct casing of a given filename:

function get_cased_filename($filename)
{
    $globbable = addcslashes($filename, '?*[]\\');
    $globbable = preg_replace_callback('/[a-zA-Z]/', 'get_bracket_upper_lower', $globbable);
    $files = glob($globbable);
    if (count($files)==1)
    {
        return $files[0];
    }
    return false;
}

function get_bracket_upper_lower($m)
{
    return '['.strtolower($m[0]).strtoupper($m[0]).']';
}

The glob should only match one file, but if used on a case sensitive file system then it could match more - required behaviour is up to you - eg return the [0] anyway or throw a E_NOTICE or something.

You might find it helpful: $mydir = get_cased_filename(dirname(__FILE__)); Works for my CLI PHP 5.3.6 on Mac 10.6.8.

I use it to deal with coworkers who don't notice things like "Filename" and "filename" being different. (These people also wonder why filenames that contain ">" or "?" don't work when copying from Mac to Windows server, but I digress...)

Answer 2

I was using apache and I found that the __DIR__ of the executed file was the same one found in the DOCUMENT_ROOT of the apache config.

That means that if the apache config had

DocumentRoot /users/me/stuff/my_site

script from the question was printing:

PATH = /users/me/stuff/my_site (All lower case)

PATH = /Users/me/stuff/my_site (Mixed case)

And if the apache config had:

DocumentRoot /Users/me/stuff/my_site

script from the question was printing:

PATH = /Users/me/stuff/my_site (Mixed case)

PATH = /Users/me/stuff/my_site (Mixed case)

Which was much better.

If you encounter this problem, check the apache configuration taking into account that it's case sensitive.

Answer 3

I have had similar problems developing PHP on MAC OS X. You can format with a case sensitive filesystem but if you are using Adobe's design software you might run into trouble: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/392791

The real issue is that the file system that is said to be case insensitive is in actual fact partially case insensitive. You can create two files with names 'Filename' and 'filename' in the same directory but 'Filename' and 'filename' may point to both files: http://systemsboy.com/2005/12/mac-osx-command-line-is-partially-case-insensitive.html

Answer 4

What about creating an include file in the same directory as your app.

<?php return __DIR__; ?>

Use it like so:

$trueDIR = include('get_true_dir.php');

From what you posted above, this should work. Yes, it's a bit of a hacky workaround, but it is a workaround, and should work even on systems not suffering from this issue.