Get folder up one level

echo dirname(__DIR__);

But note the __DIR__ constant was added in PHP 5.3.0.

You could do either:

dirname(__DIR__);

Or:

__DIR__ . '/..';

...but in a web server environment you will probably find that you are already working from current file's working directory, so you can probably just use:

'../'

...to reference the directory above. You can replace __DIR__ with dirname(__FILE__) before PHP 5.3.0.

You should also be aware what __DIR__ and __FILE__ refers to:

The full path and filename of the file. If used inside an include, the name of the included file is returned.

So it may not always point to where you want it to.

Also you can use dirname(__DIR__, $level) for access any folding level without traversing

You can try

echo realpath(__DIR__ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . '..');