Difference between PC development environment and hosting.

[CB150Special]

I have my main files in the root directory. I put my headers, css etc in a sub directory.  I'm using netbeans and all works well at home.

 

When I upload to crazydomains, any files required from the sub directory are not being loaded.

 include('\misc\mem_header.php')

I do have access to the directory because if I go to the web page XYZ.com/misc they are there and I can view them.

 

Does linux reference files differently to windows and if so, how do I fix this to work in both environments?   

 

 

[requinix]

Does linux reference files differently to windows

Ha. Ha ha. Hahahaha.

 

Yes. And that only scratches the surface of how files work differently between the two.

 

Always use forward slashes / for file paths. They work on Linux and Windows. Backslashes \ work on Windows but not on Linux. Backslashes are also special in PHP strings, and accidentally writing "path\to\folder" won't even work on Windows (though 'path\to\folder' will).

 

A leading slash has special meaning, too. Like how \misc on Windows means C:\misc (or whatever drive), /misc on Linux means the root of the filesystem. When locating files on your site, use the DOCUMENT_ROOT as a prefix. It's the path to the public root of your website.

include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/misc/mem_header.php');

On Windows you'll sometimes see filenames with \ and / mixed. As long as the backslashes are coming from PHP itself (like the DOCUMENT_ROOT) and not your own code that's okay and you don't need to worry about trying to fix it.

[Moorcam]

Linux does not use backslashes.

Change include('\misc\mem_header.php')

To this:

 include('/misc/mem_header.php')

[gizmola]

This is exactly why a lot of people use vagrant/docker/vmware/virtualbox etc.

 

That way you can develop in a virtual environment that is close to if not identical to the one you're going to deploy to.

 

I wrote about how to setup a Centos server under windows back in 2009 here: http://www.gizmola.com/blog/archives/95-Run-a-Centos-Lamp-development-server-on-XP,-Vista-or-Win-7-using-VirtualBox.html

 

It touches upon a few things that are interesting, but I wouldn't do it this way today, given the advances in virtual box networking.

 

Here's a real simple prescription I found: https://github.com/saasbook/courseware/wiki/Setting-Up-Vagrant-Environment-on-Windows-Platform

 

My advice today would be to install vagrant & virtual box (vagrant uses virtual box). Microsoft also has https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3702 which would be an alternative to virtual box. They are all free technologies, although I don't think that Vagrant supports Virtual PC.

 

At that point, you would remove all that WAMP crap from your workstation, and run everything self contained inside a VM, which you can start and stop when you need them.