How to get full path of image in php - php

Question

I want to get the full path of image in PHP. I used <input> tag for image uploading. I'm unable to get the full path. when I alert the value of <input type="file">, I'm getting
c:/fake-path/image.jpg
Here is my code:
<input type="file" name="upload_captcha_background" id="upload_captcha_background" />
var file_path= jQuery("#upload_captcha_background").val();
alert(file_path);
and in PHP I'm fetching the value like:
$ux_image_path =$_FILES['upload_captcha_background'];

Answer 1

If you mean the path where the image was located on the user computer before he/she uploaded it to your form - you can never know it in php or javascript or anywhere else.
In PHP you can see the path on SERVER (usually in the temporary folder) where the file was stored so you can read or copy it. If may just happen that the server is as well your user computer (i.e. you are testing the website on http :// localhost) but don't confuse those two things.

Answer 2

You can never be sure of getting a full filepath or even a reliable filename or content-type submitted in a file upload file.
you should never do so....and i think trying it in latest browsers is useless(from what i know) .. all latest browsers on the other hand , will not allow this.
Some related Stackoverflow questions:
How to get the full path of the file from a file input
Full path from file input using jQuery
Retrieving the full path (server-side) of a file uploaded using Firefox

Answer 3

the structure for
$_FILES[]
as follows
/*
Array
(
[image] => Array
(
[name] => Array
(
[0] => 400.png
)
[type] => Array
(
[0] => image/png
)
[tmp_name] => Array
(
[0] => /tmp/php5Wx0aJ
)
[error] => Array
(
[0] => 0
)
[size] => Array
(
[0] => 15726
)
)
)
*/
if you are trying to upload a file and copy it to a directory
use the following code
$tmp_name = $_FILES['upload_captcha_background']["tmp_name"];
$name = $_FILES['upload_captcha_background']['name'];
move_uploaded_file($tmp_name, "$uploads_dir/$name");