function drupal_realpath

Returns the absolute local filesystem path of a stream URI.

This function was originally written to ease the conversion of 6.x code to use 7.x stream wrappers. However, it assumes that every URI may be resolved to an absolute local filesystem path, and this assumption fails when stream wrappers are used to support remote file storage. Remote stream wrappers may implement the realpath method by always returning FALSE. The use of drupal_realpath() is discouraged, and is slowly being removed from core functions where possible.

Only use this function if you know that the stream wrapper in the URI uses the local file system, and you need to pass an absolute path to a function that is incompatible with stream URIs.

@todo This function is deprecated, and should be removed wherever possible.

Parameters

$uri: A stream wrapper URI or a filesystem path, possibly including one or more symbolic links.

Return value

The absolute local filesystem path (with no symbolic links), or FALSE on failure.

See also

DrupalStreamWrapperInterface::realpath()

http://php.net/manual/function.realpath.php

Related topics

File

includes/file.inc, line 2230

API for handling file uploads and server file management.

Code

function drupal_realpath($uri) {
  // If this URI is a stream, pass it off to the appropriate stream wrapper.
  // Otherwise, attempt PHP's realpath. This allows use of drupal_realpath even
  // for unmanaged files outside of the stream wrapper interface.
  if ($wrapper = file_stream_wrapper_get_instance_by_uri($uri)) {
    return $wrapper->realpath();
  }
  // Check that the URI has a value. There is a bug in PHP 5.2 on *BSD systems
  // that makes realpath not return FALSE as expected when passing an empty
  // variable.
  // @todo Remove when Drupal drops support for PHP 5.2.
  elseif (!empty($uri)) {
    return realpath($uri);
  }
  return FALSE;
}