Proper way to set PHP include path for *Nix and Windows
Is this the proper way to define an include path for both *nix and Windows?
define( 'INCPATH', realpath( dirname( __FILE__ ) ) . '/' );
Note the trailing forward-slash I included above. Is the forward-slash for includes/requires the same for both OS's, as well?
EDIT (UPDATED WITH ANSWER):
From what I can gather, my code below is the proper way to universally define an include/require path for both *nix and Windows OS's. Feel free to correct anything in the comments below.
The thing that confused me were the many examples I saw showing replacement of back-slashes (\) into forward-slashes(/). Based on some of the answers below, this is unnecessary.
So the final correct code (for the purist) is:
define( 'INCPATH', realpath( dirname( __FILE__ ) ) . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR );
That code produces the following results:
*nix: /path/to/the/file/
Windows: C:\Path To\the\file\
A brief explanation, working our way from the inside (__FILE__) out (realpath()):
FILE The full path and filename of the file. Always contains an absolute path with symlinks resolved.
dirname() The returned string is path with any trailing /component removed. Responsible for removing the filename.
realpath() Returns the canonicalized (normalized/standardized) absolute pathname on success. The resulting path will have no symbolic link, '/./' or '/../' components. I assume this is included for thoroughness because __FILE__ already resolves symlinks. Or maybe it's included to resolve relative paths? Either way, it seems to solidify our goal.
Answer
Forward slashes will work for both OS's, and it's the way to go.
I couldn't find an absolute reference to this, but it's indicated in several places in the PHP manual, like here and here. And, it works for me, a Windows & Linux user.
Lastly, you may end up specifying mixed-paths on Windows, like c:\\apache\\htdocs\\myapp/index.php, and that all works fine.