php exec command - relative paths not working

Question

how to run external program from php with exec command using relative paths?

 <?php

  exec('program_name ......');

 ?>

this works only if program_name.exe is in the same directory as this php script. for example

   exec('something/program_name ......');

doesnt work if php script is not in the 'something' directory. anybody know how use relative paths in exec command ? thanks

Answer 1

Make it absolute, relative paths are evil.

exec(dirname(__FILE__) . 'program_name ......');

Answer 2

To answer your question, "how [to] use relative paths in exec command?"

$rel = 'something/program_name';
$abs = realpath($rel);
exec($abs);