PHP File Navigation (Local + Remote)

Question

I have been working on a content management system (nakid) and one of my toughest challenges is the file navigation. I want to make sure the file paths and settings work on local and remote servers. Right now my setup is pretty much something like this:

first.php (used by all pages):

//Set paths to nakid root
$core['dir_cur'] = dirname(__FILE__);
$core['dir_root'] = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
//Detect current nakid directory
$get_dirnakid_1 = str_replace("\\","/",dirname(__FILE__));//If on local
$get_dirnakid_2 = str_replace("/includes/php","",$get_dirnakid_1);
$get_dirnakid_3 = str_replace($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'],"",$get_dirnakid_2);
//remove first "/"
if(substr($get_dirnakid_3, 0,1) == "/"){
 $get_dirnakid_3 = substr($get_dirnakid_3, 1);
}
//Set some default vars
$core['dir_nakid_path'] = $get_dirnakid_3;
$core['dir_nakid'] = $core['dir_root']."/".$core['dir_nakid_path'];//We need to get system() for this real value - below

The reason I also did it this way is because I want the directory that this program is sitting in to be anywhere on the server ie(/nakid)(/cms)(/admin/cms)

I'm positive I am doing something the wrong way or that there is a simpler way to take care of all this.

If it helps to get a closer look at the code and how everything is being used I have it all up at nakid.org

EDIT: Just realized what I have at nakid.org is a little different than my newly posted code, but the same idea still applies to what I am attempting to do.

Answer 1

I don't fully understand what you try to get, but maybe getcwd() is what you look for:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.getcwd.php

Answer 2

By and large, it looks okay to me.

You might want to give the variables more speaking names (e.g. nakid_root_dir, nakid_relative_webroot and so on.)

Remember when converting \ to / in path names: Whenever you match another directory name to one of those settings, you need to str_replace("\\","/"...) in those too.

I don't understand what you aim at with $get_dirnakid_2, though. Why will you screw up my path if I install your application in a directory that happens to be named /etc/includes/php/nakid?

Anyway, you should make those settings user overwritable as well. Sometimes, the user may want to set different settings from what you get from DOCUMENT_ROOT and consorts.