PHP on Plesk - Can't see absolute directories

Question

I have PHP installed on a web server administered by Plesk. I am having some PHP include_path problems which I have narrowed down to absolute paths apparently not working.

So, if I try to do a directory listing, the following works:

echo "<h3>Directory listing of .</h3>";
foreach (new DirectoryIterator('.') as $fileInfo) {
    if($fileInfo->isDot()) continue;
    echo $fileInfo->getFilename() . "<br>\n";
};

But this gives no output. (There are files there).

echo "<h3>Directory listing of /var/www</h3>";
foreach (new DirectoryIterator('/var/www') as $fileInfo) {
    if($fileInfo->isDot()) continue;
    echo $fileInfo->getFilename() . "<br>\n";
};

Output:

Directory listing of .
.htaccess
index.php
try.php

Directory listing of /var/www

Any ideas?

Answer 1

If this is a multi-site server setup, this may be normal behaviour. Plesk (or some other part of your system) would confine your PHP instance to your current site, and not allow a peek into the general var/www directory.

What user is your PHP running as? Does that user have the right to access /var/www?