PHP Include Always Fails - php

Question

Apache HTTP Server 2.2.21 with VirtualHosts under SuExec
PHP 5.3.8 via fcgid
Arch Linux 2011.08.19
I am in the process of migrating from shared hosting to VPS. The code I had ran fine before the move but is now failing at this line:
require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . 'includes/content/header.php');
Error log says:
PHP Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening
required '/srv/www/hostname/public/includes/content/header.php'
(include_path='.:/usr/share/pear') in
/srv/www/hostname/public/index.php on line 3
I tried the same line without the document root part, with and without ./, etc. with no luck. No difference with require, include_once, or include, either. Yet, I can verify that the file exists at that exact location by copy-pasting from the error log and cding to it…
But just to be absolutely sure, I tested the return values of the includes as well as file_exists—they all return false. Yet all of the files are chown'd by the SuExec user/group, and no combination of permissions helps (on directories or files); have tried from 644 to 777. What's going on here?
Edit:
Same result with files in the same directory.
Apache & SuExec error logs reports nothing.
Safe Mode is set to "Off" in php.ini.
dirname(__FILE__) and exec('pwd') return the same as $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] but without the trailing slash.
fread, file_get_contents, and realpath(dirname(__FILE__)) all return false.
set_include_path() has no effect.
Running require via php-cgi directly from the command line returns Internal Server Error while include returns blank output; running either via php returns blank output.
Here's my vhost config:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin admin#hostname.com
DocumentRoot "/srv/www/hostname/public/"
ServerName hostname.com
ServerAlias www.hostname.com
SuexecUserGroup hostname hostname
ErrorLog "/srv/www/hostname/logs/error.log"
LogLevel debug
CustomLog "/srv/www/hostname/logs/access.log" combined
<Directory /srv/www/hostname/public>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
# http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2982
<IfModule !mod_php5.c>
<IfModule !mod_php5_filter.c>
<IfModule !mod_php5_hooks.c>
<IfModule mod_actions.c>
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
<IfModule mod_mime.c>
<IfModule mod_fcgid.c>
AddHandler php-fcgi .php
Action php-fcgi /fcgid-bin/php-fcgid-wrapper
Alias /fcgid-bin/ /srv/www/hostname/fcgid-bin/
<Location /fcgid-bin/>
SetHandler fcgid-script
Options +ExecCGI
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Location>
ReWriteEngine On
ReWriteRule ^/fcgid-bin/[^/]*$ / [PT]
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
</VirtualHost>

Answer 1

First make sure the file exists...
Then try to navigate to it using
www.hostname/public/includes/content/header.php (if your using
something local it would be
localhost/public/includes/content/header.php)
If that does not load either something is wrong with your
installation or your file is corrupt.
Try loading the header from somewhere else

Answer 2

Did you check permission of folders containg that files ?
Folder should has read permission for apache (or any user that runs http-server).
Have you try add path to include path ?
$path = '/includes/content';
set_include_path(get_include_path() . PATH_SEPARATOR . $path);
http://php.net/manual/en/function.set-include-path.php

Answer 3

It always works to me ->
if ( DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR == '/' )
{
$path = dirname(__FILE__).'/';
}
else
{
$path = str_replace('\\', '/', dirname(__FILE__)).'/';
}
give a try!
[EDITED]
using dirname() function always works! $path = dirname(__FILE__).'/'; perhaps the problem is in your server. Not in the programming (script).

Answer 4

DerfK over at ServerFault nailed it: it was an open_basedir restriction.

Answer 5

Circling back to post the solution:
I didn't realize that open_basedir was unaffected by Safe Mode being off—it was looking in /srv/http/ but not /srv/www/, which would be the containing directory for /srv/www/hostname/public/includes/content/.