How to catch error of require() or include() in PHP?

Question

I\'m writing a script in PHP5 that requires the code of certain files. When A file is not available for inclusion, first a warning and then a fatal error are thrown. I\'d li

Answer 1

I just use 'file_exists()':

if (file_exists("must_have.php")) {
    require "must_have.php";
}
else {
    echo "Please try back in five minutes...\n";
}

Answer 2

You can accomplish this by using set_error_handler in conjunction with ErrorException.

The example from the ErrorException page is:

<?php
function exception_error_handler($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline ) {
    throw new ErrorException($errstr, $errno, 0, $errfile, $errline);
}
set_error_handler("exception_error_handler");

/* Trigger exception */
strpos();
?>

Once you have errors being handled as exceptions you can do something like:

<?php
try {
    include 'fileERROR.php5';
} catch (ErrorException $ex) {
    echo "Unable to load configuration file.";
    // you can exit or die here if you prefer - also you can log your error,
    // or any other steps you wish to take
}
?>

Answer 3

You need to use include(). Require(), when used on non-existent file, produces a fatal error and exits the script, so your die() won't happen. Include() only throws warning and then the script continues.

Answer 4

A simple way I am using is that

<?php
    ...
    if(!include 'config.php'){
        die("File not found handler. >_<");
    }
   ...
?>

Answer 5

A better approach would be to use realpath on the path first. realpath will return false if the file does not exist.

$filename = realpath(getcwd() . "/fileERROR.php5");
$filename && return require($filename);
trigger_error("Could not find file {$filename}", E_USER_ERROR);

You could even create your own require function in your app's namespace that wraps PHP's require function

namespace app;

function require_safe($filename) {
  $path = realpath(getcwd() . $filename);
  $path && return require($path);
  trigger_error("Could not find file {$path}", E_USER_ERROR);
}

Now you can use it anywhere in your files

namespace app;

require_safe("fileERROR.php5");

Answer 6

I would suggest you took a look at the most recent comment in the documentation for the set_error_handler() function.

It suggests the following as a method (and with an example) of catching fatal errors:

<?php
function shutdown()
{
    $a=error_get_last();
    if($a==null)  
        echo "No errors";
    else
         print_r($a);

}
register_shutdown_function('shutdown');
ini_set('max_execution_time',1 );
sleep(3);
?> 

I haven't tried the suggestion, but this could propably be used in other fatal error scenarios.