在PHP的Windows上访问root / htdocs之外的文件

Question

How can i access a file outside of htdocs folder on windows? I have a config file outside of my root (htdocs) folder, in which i want to save off the configuration for my database connection, but when i call it, it says no file found.

i am cureently in the following directory: xampp\htdocs\includes

and my config file is in: \xampp\inc

i tried to echo the path, but i didn't get any output

echo realpath('../..inc/config.php') . PHP_EOL;

if (!file_exists('../../inc/config.php')) {
          throw new Exception("No config file found!");
        }