Attention

TYPO3 v9 has reached its end-of-life September 30th, 2021 and is not maintained by the community anymore. Looking for a stable version? Use the version switch on the top left.

You can order Extended Long Term Support (ELTS) here: TYPO3 ELTS.

Environment

Since version 9.x the TYPO3 core includes an environment class. This class contains all environment-specific information, e.g. paths within the filesystem. This implementation replaces previously used global variables and constants like PATH_site.

The fully qualified class name is \TYPO3\CMS\Core\Core\Environment. The class provides static methods to access the necessary information.

To simulate environments in testing scenarios, the initialize()-method can be called to adjust the information.

Environment PHP API

getProjectPath()

The environment provides the path to the folder containing the composer.json. For projects without Composer setup, this is equal to getPublicPath().

getPublicPath()

The environment provides the path to the public web folder with index.php for the TYPO3 frontend. This was previously PATH_site. For projects without Composer setup, this is equal to getProjectPath().

getVarPath()

The environment provides the path to the var folder. This folder contains data like logs, sessions, locks, and cache files.

For projects with Composer setup, the value is getProjectPath() . '/var', so it is outside of the web document root - not within getPublicPath().

Without Composer, the value is getPublicPath() . '/typo3temp/var', so within the web document root - a situation that is not optimal from a security point of view.

getConfigPath()

The environment provides the path to typo3conf. This folder contains TYPO3 global configuration files and folders, e.g. LocalConfiguration.php.

For projects with Composer setup, the value is getProjectPath() . '/typo3conf', so it is outside of the web document root - not within getPublicPath().

Without Composer, the value is getPublicPath() . '/typo3conf', so within the web document root - a situation that is not optimal from a security point of view.

getLabelsPath()

The environment provides the path to labels, respective l10n folder. This folder contains downloaded translation files.

For projects with Composer setup, the value is getVarPath() . '/labels', so it is outside of the web document root - not within getPublicPath().

Without Composer, the value is getPublicPath() . '/typo3conf/l10n', so within the web document root - a situation that is not optimal from a security point of view.

getCurrentScript()

Returns the path and filename to the current PHP script.

getContext()

Returns the current Application Context, usually defined via the TYPO3_CONTEXT environment variable. May be one of Production, Testing, or Development with optional sub-contexts like Production/Staging.

Configuring Environment Paths

The TYPO3 constant PATH_site acts as a basis for any PHP entry point. It can be overwritten via the environment variable TYPO3_PATH_ROOT.

The variable TYPO3_PATH_ROOT is automatically calculated and set for any Composer-based TYPO3 installation, making it possible to e.g. run the TYPO3 command line interface from any location.

The environment variable called TYPO3_PATH_APP is used to allow to store data outside of the document root.

All Composer-based installations benefit from this functionality, as data that was previously stored and hard-coded within typo3temp/var/ is now stored within the project root folder var/.

For non-composer installations (Classic Mode), it is possible to set the environment variable to a folder, usually one level upwards than the regular webroot. This increases security for any TYPO3 installation as files are not publicly accessible (for example via web browser) anymore.

A typical example:

  • TYPO3_PATH_APP is set to /var/www/my-project.

  • The web folder is then set to TYPO3_PATH_ROOT /var/www/my-project/public.

Non-public files are then put to

  • /var/www/my-project/var/session (like Maintenance Tool Session files)

  • /var/www/my-project/var/cache (Caching Framework data)

  • /var/www/my-project/var/lock (Files related to locking)

  • /var/www/my-project/var/log (Files related to logging)

  • /var/www/my-project/var/extensionmanager (Files related to extension manager data)

  • /var/www/my-project/var/transient (Files related to import/export, core updater, FAL)

For installations without this setting, there are minor differences in the folder structure:

  • typo3temp/var/cache is used instead of typo3temp/var/Cache

  • typo3temp/var/log is used instead of typo3temp/var/logs

  • typo3temp/var/lock is used instead of typo3temp/var/locks

  • typo3temp/var/session is used instead of typo3temp/var/InstallToolSessions

  • typo3temp/var/extensionmanager is used instead of typo3temp/var/ExtensionManager

Important

Although it is a most common understanding in the TYPO3 world that typo3temp/ can be removed at any time, it is considered bad practice to remove the whole folder. Developers should selectively remove folders relevant to the changes made.