How to include PHP files that require an absolute path?

This should work

$root = realpath($_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]);

include "$root/inc/include1.php";

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Edit: added imporvement by aussieviking

You can use relative paths. Try __FILE__. This is a PHP constant which always returns the path/filename of the script it is in. So, in soap.php, you could do:

include dirname(__FILE__).'/../inc/include.php';

The full path and filename of the file. If used inside an include, the name of the included file is returned. Since PHP 4.0.2, __FILE__ always contains an absolute path with symlinks resolved whereas in older versions it contained relative path under some circumstances. (source)

Another solution would be to set an include path in your httpd.conf or an .htaccess file.