How to stop fatal error when loading theme template file directly

Question

If one tries to load a theme template file directly, the following error message is displayed:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_header() in ...

and it goes on to list the full directory path to the wordpress install. This seems undesirable. How can I prevent it? Upon googling I found a suggestion to insert the following into wp-config.php:

error_reporting(0);
@ini_set(‘display_errors’, 0);

Oddly, it did not work when I tested it.

Thank you!

Answer 1

I define some variables used in my theme at the top of functions.php....one of them being

$press_here             = 'yes';

Then at the top of my template files I use

<?php
global $press_here;
if( !isset( $press_here ) )
    die('You don\'t have permission to view this page.');

Which then gives the error message I define there when being accessed directly, nothing more. (Thanks @t31os )