PHP cron require path issue - php

Question

I'm having an issue with PHP require (I think) and crontab. I'm using AWS.
The error looks like this:
PHP Fatal error: require(): Failed opening required '/inc/classes/core/inc.php' (include_path='.:/usr/share/pear:/usr/share/php') in /var/www/html/inc/files/core/config.php on line 16
My PHP require looks like this:
require($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/inc/files/core/config.php');
There are similar issues here about the same thing and I looked at them, but their solutions didn't seem to work for me. One of the things I tried from Stackoverflow was this:
$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] = realpath(dirname(__FILE__).'/../../../../');
require($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/inc/files/core/config.php');
Another was adding this to my php ini file (also a suggestion from another thread):
include_path = ".:/usr/share/php:/var/www/<directory>/"
I also tried being direct with the path (i.e., /var/www/public/inc/etc) which didn't work.
My file dictionary is like:
public
-- inc
---- files
------ site
-------- cron
-- etc
-- etc
I should note that the requires are the same on every page and they work, except in the cron job. I read that this could be because of the $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] var being set by the user as they browse and can't be set by the crontab, but I can't figure out the fix.
The crontab looks like this, but it seems to send an email every 5 minutes like it's supposed to so I don't think there's any issue here.
*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/inc/files/site/cron/shop.php
I'm hoping someone has some insight on this because I'm stumped! I didn't set up any of the crontab work but the person who did left, and I'm not familiar with it.
I put in all the information here I could think of, but I'm happy to answer any additional questions.

Answer 1

There is no $_SERVER when running php-cli. It will return empty or null value.
$_SERVER is an array containing information such as headers, paths, and script locations. The entries in this array are created by the web server.
https://secure.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.server.php
Replace with a path to the file you want, assuming the path of the script you are running. This may work, but maybe you need to add or remove some of the ../
require(__DIR__ . '/../../../files/core/config.php');
The error you get points to config.php file. You probably have another $_SERVER there, that you need to replace and/or find a way to identify whether is a HTTP request or php-cli.
Something like
if($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']) {
require($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . ...);
} else {
require(__DIR__. ...);
}
You may want to add a global constant that points to the root of you project.
if($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']) {
const BASEDIR = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
} else {
const BASEDIR = __DIR__. ...;
}
Then use BASEDIR for the entire application.
EDIT: as suggested by #YvesLeBorg, you can create a different file, that call your entry point with curl or wget.
*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /path/to/my_script.sh
Then in my_script.sh you can write
wget http://my_web_page/shop.php
Then you will have a $_SERVER and there is no need to refactor.
Be aware of security, as anyone can call you page and run your proccess.
You may want to use a token and validate IP Address to be sure that only you can call this shop.php page.