Why doesn't the php script execute when I include it - php

Question

I'll try to be clear:
I'm working on a web app using amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS and now Amazon SES.
I'm trying to implement email verification upon sign up. Unfortunately the php mail function doesn't work on amazon EC2 instances for some reason, I have tried reinstalling sendmail and postfix and looking into the php.ini file to no avail. Which leads me to following this: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ses/latest/DeveloperGuide/send-using-sdk-php.html
that works fine but only if you run it from the shell accessed via ssh using putty.
Using username "ec2-user".
Authenticating with public key "imported-openssh-key"
Last login: Fri Aug 7 05:32:51 2020 from 116.90.72.92
__| __|_ )
_| ( / Amazon Linux AMI
___|\___|___|
https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/2018.03-release-notes/
[ec2-user#ip-172-31-24-178 ~]$ sudo su
[root#ip-172-31-24-178 ec2-user]# php amazon-ses-sample.php
Email sent! Message ID: 010f0173c771a9d3-b9d5e167-7b19-4b42-a550-dce52a8b83d5-000000
[root#ip-172-31-24-178 ec2-user]#
All my php scripts are run from the apache (httpd) server running on an EC2 instance that I'm using. The scripts run fine, but I trying to include the amazon ses sample(see code below) it errors out and doesn't execute:
//include 'amazon-ses-sample.php'; <-------**HERE: including this doesn't work.**
?>
This script is from AWS which only work if you use the command: $ php amazon-ses-sample.php
// If necessary, modify the path in the require statement below to refer to the
// location of your Composer autoload.php file.
require '/var/www/aws/aws-autoloader.php';
use Aws\Ses\SesClient;
use Aws\Exception\AwsException;
// Create an SesClient. Change the value of the region parameter if you're
// using an AWS Region other than US West (Oregon). Change the value of the
// profile parameter if you want to use a profile in your credentials file
// other than the default.
$SesClient = new SesClient([
'profile' => 'default',
'version' => '2010-12-01',
'region' => 'us-east-2'
]);
// Replace sender#example.com with your "From" address.
// This address must be verified with Amazon SES.
$sender_email = 'ngudy049#gmail.com';
// Replace these sample addresses with the addresses of your recipients. If
// your account is still in the sandbox, these addresses must be verified.
$recipient_emails = ['ngudy049#gmail.com','ngudy049#gmail.com'];
// Specify a configuration set. If you do not want to use a configuration
// set, comment the following variable, and the
// 'ConfigurationSetName' => $configuration_set argument below.
//$configuration_set = 'ConfigSet';
$nameString = "username3";
$subject = 'Amazon web app sign up test';
$plaintext_body = "This email was sent with Amazon SES using the AWS SDK for PHP.".
"Username: ".$nameString." Password: ".$passwordString."Please click this link to activate your account:".
"http://www.yourwebsite.com/verify.php?email=".$emailString."&hash=".$hashString; // Our message above including the link
$html_body = "<p>Thanks for signing up! Your account has been created, you can login".
" with the following credentials after you have activated your account by pressing the url below.</p>".
"<br>".
"Username: ".$usernameString. "<br>".
"Password: ".$passwordString. "<br>".
"<br>".
"http://3.23.88.212/verify.php?email=".$emailString."&hash=".$hashString; // Our message above including the link;
$char_set = 'UTF-8';
try {
$result = $SesClient->sendEmail([
'Destination' => [
'ToAddresses' => $recipient_emails,
],
'ReplyToAddresses' => [$sender_email],
'Source' => $sender_email,
'Message' => [
'Body' => [
'Html' => [
'Charset' => $char_set,
'Data' => $html_body,
],
'Text' => [
'Charset' => $char_set,
'Data' => $plaintext_body,
],
],
'Subject' => [
'Charset' => $char_set,
'Data' => $subject,
],
],
// If you aren't using a configuration set, comment or delete the
// following line
//'ConfigurationSetName' => $configuration_set,
]);
$messageId = $result['MessageId'];
echo("Email sent! Message ID: $messageId"."\n");
} catch (AwsException $e) {
// output error message if fails
echo $e->getMessage();
echo("The email was not sent. Error message: ".$e->getAwsErrorMessage()."\n");
echo "\n";
}
?>
I have tried adding the contents of amazon-ses-sample.php to my php scripts but that doesn't work. It only works if you use:
[root#ip-172-31-24-178 ec2-user]# php /var/www/html/amazon-ses-sample.php

Answer 1

Judging based on your code I see the following observations.
When you run /var/www/html/amazon-ses-sample.php it works, but when you call as root on the CLI but otherwise for the apache user it does not work.
As you're running using include this will simply raise a warning to highlight the file cannot be included (so make sure to check your local PHP logs), whereas require will explicitly fatal error if it cannot reach the file.
There are a number of issues that could cause this but here are the likely ones:
Check file path relative to the script, if you simply call include file.php this will be added relative to the current directory.
Ensure the local file permissions of the file allow the apache user/group to read and execute the file. This properties can vary per OS/installation and can be set as custom values.