[php] Passing a variable from one php include file to another: global vs. not

I'm trying to pass a variable from one include file to another. This is NOT working unless I declare the variable as global in the second include file. However, I do NOT need to declare it as global in the file that is calling the first include. For example:

front.inc:

$name = 'james';

index.php:

include('front.inc');
echo $name;
include('end.inc');

output: james

end.inc:

echo $name;

output: nothing

IF I declare global $name prior to echoing $name in end.inc, then it works properly. The accepted answer to this post explains that this depends on your server configuration: Passing variables in PHP from one file to another

I'm using an Apache server. How would I configure it so that declaring $name to be global is not necessary? Are there advantages/disadvantages to one vs. the other?

This is all you have to do:

In front.inc

global $name;
$name = 'james';

Here is a pitfall to avoid. In case you need to access your variable $name within a function, you need to say "global $name;" at the beginning of that function. You need to repeat this for each function in the same file.

include('front.inc');
global $name;

function foo() {
  echo $name;
}

function bar() {
  echo $name;
}

foo();
bar();

will only show errors. The correct way to do that would be:

include('front.inc');

function foo() {
  global $name;
  echo $name;
}

function bar() {
  global $name;
  echo $name;
}

foo();
bar();