betterCode() PHP 2025

get_included_files

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

get_included_filesReturns an array with the names of included or required files

Description

get_included_files(): array

Gets the names of all files that have been included using include, include_once, require or require_once.

Parameters

This function has no parameters.

Return Values

Returns an array of the names of all files.

The script originally called is considered an "included file," so it will be listed together with the files referenced by include and family.

Files that are included or required multiple times only show up once in the returned array.

Examples

Example #1 get_included_files() example

<?php
// This file is abc.php

include 'test1.php';
include_once
'test2.php';
require
'test3.php';
require_once
'test4.php';

$included_files = get_included_files();

foreach (
$included_files as $filename) {
echo
"$filename\n";
}

?>

The above example will output:

/path/to/abc.php
/path/to/test1.php
/path/to/test2.php
/path/to/test3.php
/path/to/test4.php

See Also

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User Contributed Notes 4 notes

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14
yarco dot w at gmail dot com
18 years ago
If you have a MAIN php script which you don't want to be included by other scripts, you could use this function. For example:

main.php:
<?php
function blockit()
{
$buf = get_included_files();
return
$buf[0] != __FILE__;
}

blockit() and exit("You can not include a MAIN file as a part of your script.");

print
"OK";
?>

So other script couldn't include main.php to modify its internal global vars.
up
6
D
5 years ago
It's perhaps not clear from the existing docs that the returned list contains nested include files as well.

That is, if A.php includes B.php, and B.php includes C.php, the result returned when calling get_included_files() from inside A.php WILL contain 'C.php'.
up
3
RPaseur at NationalPres dot org
19 years ago
As is often the case, YMMV. I tried the __FILE__ and SCRIPT_FILENAME comparison and found this:

SCRIPT_FILENAME: /var/www/cgi-bin/php441
__FILE__: /raid/home/natpresch/natpresch/RAY_included.php

As an alternative:

count(get_included_files());

Gives one when the script is standalone and always more than one when the script is included.
up
0
Aurelien Marchand
3 years ago
This is a great way to emulate Python's '__name__ = "__main__"'

<?php
if(get_included_files()[0] === __FILE__) doStuff();
?>
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