why is include_path in php.ini being ignored?

Question

I have a zend library and for simplicity I put it in the root. ( /library/zend/... ) I added the path to my php.ini include_path and un-commented it. ( include_path = ".:/library/" ).

In my website files I have require_once 'Zend\\Loader.php';

But when I try to access the page I get:

 Warning: require_once(Zend/Loader.php): failed to open stream: 
          No such file or directory  in /var/www/TEST/index.php on line 7

 Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required 'Zend/Loader.php' 
    (include_path='.:/usr/share/php:/usr/share/pear') 
    in /var/www/TEST/index.php on line 7

Why is it looking for pear? Those directories do not even exist.

I have required the full path and that worked (well then zend didnt know where to look for everything else but it was able to find loader.php) so I think that means permissions are okay. I have tried adding/removing a trailing slash in the include path and a preceding slash in the php website file.

The only thing i could find on google was something about a .htaccess? Not sure what or where that is.

I am editing the right php.ini file because i am able to turn error reporting on and off from it.

Both doc_root and include_path have been changed but fail to show changes in phpinfo() even though phpinfo() says i am editing the right php.ini file

Answer 1

When you change the include_path in php.ini the change will affect all your projects.

Better idea would be to use set_include_path and get_include_path php functions to update the path just for the current application.

Remember, that the path must be an absolute path , so this will be more or less like this:

set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, array(
    realpath(APPLICATION_PATH . '/../library'),
    APPLICATION_PATH . '/../vendor/',
    get_include_path(),
)));