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Installing PHP _________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Preface 1. General Installation Considerations 2. Installation on Windows systems Windows Installer Manual Installation Steps ActiveScript Microsoft IIS / PWS Apache 1.3.x on Microsoft Windows Apache 2.0.x on Microsoft Windows Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers on Microsoft Windows OmniHTTPd Server Sambar Server on Microsoft Windows Xitami on Microsoft Windows Installation of extensions on Windows 3. Installation of PECL extensions Introduction to PECL Installations Downloading PECL extensions PECL for Windows users Compiling shared PECL extensions with PEAR Compiling shared PECL extensions with phpize Compiling PECL extensions statically into PHP 4. Problems? Read the FAQ Other problems Bug reports 5. Runtime Configuration The configuration file How to change configuration settings _________________________________________________________________ Preface These installation instructions were generated from the HTML version of the PHP Manual so formatting and linking have been altered. See the online and updated version at: http://php.net/install.windows _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 1. General Installation Considerations Before starting the installation, first you need to know what do you want to use PHP for. There are three main fields you can use PHP, as described in the What can PHP do? section: * Server-side scripting * Command line scripting * Client-side GUI applications For the first and most common form, you need three things: PHP itself, a web server and a web browser. You probably already have a web browser, and depending on your operating system setup, you may also have a web server (e.g. Apache on Linux and MacOS X; IIS on Windows). You may also rent webspace at a company. This way, you don't need to set up anything on your own, only write your PHP scripts, upload it to the server you rent, and see the results in your browser. While setting up the server and PHP on your own, you have two choices for the method of connecting PHP to the server. For many servers PHP has a direct module interface (also called SAPI). These servers include Apache, Microsoft Internet Information Server, Netscape and iPlanet servers. Many other servers have support for ISAPI, the Microsoft module interface (OmniHTTPd for example). If PHP has no module support for your web server, you can always use it as a CGI or FastCGI processor. This means you set up your server to use the CGI executable of PHP to process all PHP file requests on the server. If you are also interested to use PHP for command line scripting (e.g. write scripts autogenerating some images for you offline, or processing text files depending on some arguments you pass to them), you always need the command line executable. For more information, read the section about writing command line PHP applications. In this case, you need no server and no browser. With PHP you can also write desktop GUI applications using the PHP-GTK extension. This is a completely different approach than writing web pages, as you do not output any HTML, but manage windows and objects within them. For more information about PHP-GTK, please visit the site dedicated to this extension. PHP-GTK is not included in the official PHP distribution. From now on, this section deals with setting up PHP for web servers on Unix and Windows with server module interfaces and CGI executables. You will also find information on the command line executable in the following sections. PHP source code and binary distributions for Windows can be found at http://www.php.net/downloads.php. We recommend you to choose a mirror nearest to you for downloading the distributions. _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 2. Installation on Windows systems This section applies to Windows 98/Me and Windows NT/2000/XP/2003. PHP will not work on 16 bit platforms such as Windows 3.1 and sometimes we refer to the supported Windows platforms as Win32. Windows 95 is no longer supported as of PHP 4.3.0. There are two main ways to install PHP for Windows: either manually or by using the installer. If you have Microsoft Visual Studio, you can also build PHP from the original source code. Once you have PHP installed on your Windows system, you may also want to load various extensions for added functionality. Warning There are several all-in-one installers over the Internet, but none of those are endorsed by PHP.net, as we believe that the manual installation is the best choice to have your system secure and optimised. _________________________________________________________________ Windows Installer The Windows PHP installer is available from the downloads page at http://www.php.net/downloads.php. This installs the CGI version of PHP and for IIS, PWS, and Xitami, it configures the web server as well. The installer does not include any extra external PHP extensions (php_*.dll) as you'll only find those in the Windows Zip Package and PECL downloads. Note: While the Windows installer is an easy way to make PHP work, it is restricted in many aspects as, for example, the automatic setup of extensions is not supported. Use of the installer isn't the preferred method for installing PHP. First, install your selected HTTP (web) server on your system, and make sure that it works. Run the executable installer and follow the instructions provided by the installation wizard. Two types of installation are supported - standard, which provides sensible defaults for all the settings it can, and advanced, which asks questions as it goes along. The installation wizard gathers enough information to set up the php.ini file, and configure certain web servers to use PHP. One of the web servers the PHP installer does not configure for is Apache, so you'll need to configure it manually. Once the installation has completed, the installer will inform you if you need to restart your system, restart the server, or just start using PHP. Warning Be aware, that this setup of PHP is not secure. If you would like to have a secure PHP setup, you'd better go on the manual way, and set every option carefully. This automatically working setup gives you an instantly working PHP installation, but it is not meant to be used on online servers. _________________________________________________________________ Manual Installation Steps This install guide will help you manually install and configure PHP with a web server on Microsoft Windows. To get started you'll need to download the zip binary distribution from the downloads page at http://www.php.net/downloads.php. Although there are many all-in-one installation kits, and we also distribute a PHP installer for Microsoft Windows, we recommend you take the time to setup PHP yourself as this will provide you with a better understanding of the system, and enables you to install PHP extensions easily when needed. Upgrading from a previous PHP version: Previous editions of the manual suggest moving various ini and DLL files into your SYSTEM (i.e. C:\WINDOWS) folder and while this simplifies the installation procedure it makes upgrading difficult. We advise you remove all of these files (like php.ini and PHP related DLLs from the Windows SYSTEM folder) before moving on with a new PHP installation. Be sure to backup these files as you might break the entire system. The old php.ini might be useful in setting up the new PHP as well. And as you'll soon learn, the preferred method for installing PHP is to keep all PHP related files in one directory and have this directory available to your systems PATH. MDAC requirements: If you use Microsoft Windows 98/NT4 download the latest version of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) for your platform. MDAC is available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/. This requirement exists because ODBC is built into the distributed Windows binaries. The following steps should be completed on all installations before any server specific instructions are performed: Extract the distribution file into a directory of your choice. If you are installing PHP 4, extract to C:\, as the zip file expands to a foldername like php-4.3.7-Win32. If you are installing PHP 5, extract to C:\php as the zip file doesn't expand as in PHP 4. You may choose a different location but do not have spaces in the path (like C:\Program Files\PHP) as some web servers will crash if you do. The directory structure extracted from the zip is different for PHP versions 4 and 5 and look like as follows: Example 2-1. PHP 4 package structure c:\php | +--cli | | | |-php.exe -- CLI executable - ONLY for commandline scripting | +--dlls -- support DLLs required by some extensions | | | |-expat.dll | | | |-fdftk.dll | | | |-... | +--extensions -- extension DLLs for PHP | | | |-php_bz2.dll | | | |-php_cpdf.dll | | | |-.. | +--mibs -- support files for SNMP | +--openssl -- support files for Openssl | +--pdf-related -- support files for PDF | +--sapi -- SAPI (server module support) DLLs | | | |-php4activescript.dll | | | |-php4apache.dll | | | |-php4apache2.dll | | | |-.. | +--PEAR -- initial copy of PEAR | | |-go-pear.bat -- PEAR setup script | |-.. | |-php.exe -- CGI executable | |-.. | |-php.ini-dist -- default php.ini settings | |-php.ini-recommended -- recommended php.ini settings | |-php4ts.dll -- core PHP DLL | |-... Or: Example 2-2. PHP 5 package structure c:\php | +--dev | | | |-php5ts.lib | +--ext -- extension DLLs for PHP | | | |-php_bz2.dll | | | |-php_cpdf.dll | | | |-.. | +--extras | | | +--mibs -- support files for SNMP | | | +--openssl -- support files for Openssl | | | +--pdf-related -- support files for PDF | | | |-mime.magic | +--pear -- initial copy of PEAR | | |-go-pear.bat -- PEAR setup script | |-fdftk.dll | |-.. | |-php-cgi.exe -- CGI executable | |-php-win.exe -- executes scripts without an opened command prompt | |-php.exe -- CLI executable - ONLY for command line scripting | |-.. | |-php.ini-dist -- default php.ini settings | |-php.ini-recommended -- recommended php.ini settings | |-php5activescript.dll | |-php5apache.dll | |-php5apache2.dll | |-.. | |-php5ts.dll -- core PHP DLL | |-... Notice the differences and similarities. Both PHP 4 and PHP 5 have a CGI executable, a CLI executable, and server modules, but they are located in different folders and/or have different names. While PHP 4 packages have the server modules in the sapi folder, PHP 5 distributions have no such directory and instead they're in the PHP folder root. The supporting DLLs for the PHP 5 extensions are also not in a seperate directory. Note: In PHP 4, you should move all files located in the dll and sapi folders to the main folder (e.g. C:\php). Here is a list of server modules shipped with PHP 4 and PHP 5: * sapi/php4activescript.dll (php5activescript.dll) - ActiveScript engine, allowing you to embed PHP in your Windows applications. * sapi/php4apache.dll (php5apache.dll) - Apache 1.3.x module. * sapi/php4apache2.dll (php5apache2.dll) - Apache 2.0.x module. * sapi/php4isapi.dll (php5isapi.dll) - ISAPI Module for ISAPI compliant web servers like IIS 4.0/PWS 4.0 or newer. * sapi/php4nsapi.dll (php5nsapi.dll) - Sun/iPlanet/Netscape server module. * sapi/php4pi3web.dll (no equivalent in PHP 5) - Pi3Web server module. Server modules provide significantly better performance and additional functionality compared to the CGI binary. The CLI version is designed to let you use PHP for command line scripting. More information about CLI is available in the chapter about using PHP from the command line. Warning The SAPI modules have been significantly improved as of the 4.1 release, however, in older systems you may encounter server errors or other server modules failing, such as ASP. The CGI and CLI binaries, and the web server modules all require the php4ts.dll (php5ts.dll) file to be available to them. You have to make sure that this file can be found by your PHP installation. The search order for this DLL is as follows: * The same directory from where php.exe is called, or in case you use a SAPI module, the web server's directory (e.g. C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\bin). * Any directory in your Windows PATH environment variable. To make php4ts.dll / php5ts.dll available you have three options: copy the file to the Windows system directory, copy the file to the web server's directory, or add your PHP directory, C:\php to the PATH. For better maintenance, we advise you to follow the last option, add C:\php to the PATH, because it will be simpler to upgrade PHP in the future. Read more about how to add your PHP directory to PATH in the corresponding FAQ entry. The next step is to set up a valid configuration file for PHP, php.ini. There are two ini files distributed in the zip file, php.ini-dist and php.ini-recommended. We advise you to use php.ini-recommended, because we optimized the default settings in this file for performance, and security. Read this well documented file carefully because it has changes from php.ini-dist that will drastically affect your setup. Some examples are display_errors being off and magic_quotes_gpc being off. In addition to reading these, study the ini settings and set every element manually yourself. If you would like to achieve the best security, then this is the way for you, although PHP works fine with these default ini files. Copy your chosen ini-file to a directory that PHP is able to find and rename it to php.ini. PHP searches for php.ini in the following locations (in order): * PHPIniDir directive (Apache 2 module only) * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP\IniFilePath * The PHPRC environment variable * Directory of PHP (for CLI), or the web server's directory (for SAPI modules) * Windows directory (C:\windows or C:\winnt) If you are running Apache 2, the simpler option is to use the PHPIniDir directive (read the installation on Apache 2 page), otherwise your best option is to set the PHPRC environment variable. This process is explained in the following FAQ entry. Note: If you're using NTFS on Windows NT, 2000, XP or 2003, make sure that the user running the web server has read permissions to your php.ini (e.g. make it readable by Everyone). The following steps are optional: * Edit your new php.ini file. If you plan to use OmniHTTPd, do not follow the next step. Set the doc_root to point to your web servers document_root. For example: doc_root = c:\inetpub\wwwroot // for IIS/PWS doc_root = c:\apache\htdocs // for Apache * Choose the extensions you would like to load when PHP starts. See the section about Windows extensions, about how to set up one, and what is already built in. Note that on a new installation it is advisable to first get PHP working and tested without any extensions before enabling them in php.ini. * On PWS and IIS, you can set the browscap configuration setting to point to: c:\windows\system\inetsrv\browscap.ini on Windows 9x/Me, c:\winnt\system32\inetsrv\browscap.ini on NT/2000, and c:\windows\system32\inetsrv\browscap.ini on XP. For an up-to-date browscap.ini, read the following FAQ. PHP is now setup on your system. The next step is to choose a web server, and enable it to run PHP. Choose a webserver from the table of contents. _________________________________________________________________ ActiveScript This section contains notes specific to the ActiveScript installation. ActiveScript is a windows only SAPI that enables you to use PHP script in any ActiveScript compliant host, like Windows Script Host, ASP/ASP.NET, Windows Script Components or Microsoft Scriptlet control. As of PHP 5.0.1, ActiveScript has been moved to the PECL repository. You may download this PECL extension DLL from the PHP Downloads page or at http://snaps.php.net/. Note: You should read the manual installation steps first! After installing PHP, you should download the ActiveScript DLL (php5activescript.dll) and place it in the main PHP folder (e.g. C:\php). After having all the files needed, you must register the DLL on your system. To achieve this, open a Command Prompt window (located in the Start Menu). Then go to your PHP directory by typing something like cd C:\php. To register the DLL just type regsvr32 php5activescript.dll. To test if ActiveScript is working, create a new file, named test.wsf (the extension is very important) and type: <job id="test"> <script language="PHPScript"> $WScript->Echo("Hello World!"); </script> </job> Save and double-click on the file. If you receive a little window saying "Hello World!" you're done. Note: ActiveScript doesn't use the default php.ini file. Instead, it will look only in the same directory as the .exe that caused it to load. You should create php-activescript.ini and place it in that folder, if you wish to load extensions, etc. _________________________________________________________________ Microsoft IIS / PWS This section contains notes and hints specific to IIS (Microsoft Internet Information Server). Warning By using the CGI setup, your server is open to several possible attacks. Please read our CGI security section to learn how to defend yourself from those attacks. _________________________________________________________________ General considerations for all installations of PHP with IIS * First, read the Manual Installation Instructions. Do not skip this step as it provides crucial information for installing PHP on Windows. * CGI users must set the cgi.force_redirect PHP directive to 0 inside php.ini. Read the faq on cgi.force_redirect for important details. Also, CGI users should set the cgi.redirect_status_env directive to ENV_VAR_NAME. Be sure these directives aren't commented out inside php.ini. * The PHP 4 CGI is named php.exe while in PHP 5 it's php-cgi.exe. In PHP 5, php.exe is the CLI, and not the CGI. * Modify the Windows PATH environment variable to include the PHP directory. This way the PHP DLL files, PHP executables, and php.ini can all remain in the PHP directory without cluttering up the Windows system directory. For more details, see the FAQ on Setting the PATH. * Be sure the extension_dir and doc_root PHP directives are appropriately set in php.ini. These directives depend on the system that PHP is being installed on. In PHP 4, the extension_dir is extensions while with PHP 5 it's ext. So, an example PHP 5 extensions_dir value is "c:\php\ext" and an example IIS doc_root value is "c:\Inetpub\wwwroot". * PHP extension DLL files, such as php_mysql.dll and php_curl.dll, are found in the zip package of the PHP download (not the PHP installer). In PHP 5, many extensions are part of PECL and can be downloaded in the "Collection of PECL modules" package. Files such as php_zip.dll and php_ssh2.dll. Download PHP files here. * When defining the executable, the 'check that file exists' box may also be checked. For a small performance penalty, the IIS (or PWS) will check that the script file exists and sort out authentication before firing up PHP. This means that the web server will provide sensible 404 style error messages instead of CGI errors complaining that PHP did not output any data. _________________________________________________________________ Windows NT/200x/XP and IIS 4 or newer PHP may be installed as a CGI binary, or with the ISAPI module. In either case, you need to start the Microsoft Management Console (may appear as 'Internet Services Manager', either in your Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack branch or the Control Panel=>Administrative Tools under Windows 2000/XP). Then right click on your Web server node (this will most probably appear as 'Default Web Server'), and select 'Properties'. If you want to use the CGI binary, do the following: * Under 'Home Directory', 'Virtual Directory', or 'Directory', do the following: * Change the Execute Permissions to 'Scripts only' * Click on the 'Configuration' button, and choose the Application Mappings tab. Click Add and set the Executable path to the appropriate CGI file. An example PHP 5 value is: C:\php\php-cgi.exe Supply .php as the extension. Leave 'Method exclusions' blank, and check the 'Script engine' checkbox. Now, click OK a few times. * Set up the appropriate security. (This is done in Internet Service Manager), and if your NT Server uses NTFS file system, add execute rights for I_USR_ to the directory that contains php.exe / php-cgi.exe. To use the ISAPI module, do the following: * If you don't want to perform HTTP Authentication using PHP, you can (and should) skip this step. Under ISAPI Filters, add a new ISAPI filter. Use PHP as the filter name, and supply a path to the php4isapi.dll / php5isapi.dll. * Under 'Home Directory', 'Virtual Directory', or 'Directory', do the following: * Change the Execute Permissions to 'Scripts only' * Click on the 'Configuration' button, and choose the Application Mappings tab. Click Add and set the Executable path to the appropriate ISAPI DLL. An example PHP 5 value is: C:\php\php5isapi.dll Supply .php as the extension. Leave 'Method exclusions' blank, and check the 'Script engine' checkbox. Now, click OK a few times. * Stop IIS completely (NET STOP iisadmin) * Start IIS again (NET START w3svc) With IIS 6 (2003 Server), open up the IIS Manager, go to Web Service Extensions, choose "Add a new Web service extension", enter in a name such as PHP, choose the Add button and for the value browse to either the ISAPI file (php4isapi.dll or php5isapi.dll) or CGI (php.exe or php-cgi.exe) then check "Set extension status to Allowed" and click OK. In order to use index.php as a default content page, do the following: From within the Documents tab, choose Add. Type in index.php and click OK. Adjust the order by choosing Move Up or Move Down. This is similar to setting DirectoryIndex with Apache. The steps above must be repeated for each extension that is to be associated with PHP scripts. .php is the most common although .php3 may be required for legacy applications. If you experience 100% CPU usage after some time, turn off the IIS setting Cache ISAPI Application. _________________________________________________________________ Windows and PWS 4 PWS 4 does not support ISAPI, only PHP CGI should be used. * Edit the enclosed pws-php4cgi.reg / pws-php5cgi.reg file (look into the SAPI folder for PHP 4, or in the main folder for PHP 5) to reflect the location of your php.exe / php-cgi.exe. Backslashes should be escaped, for example: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w3svc\parame ters\Script Map] ".php"="C:\\php\\php.exe" (change to C:\\php\\php-cgi.exe if you are using PHP 5) Now merge this registery file into your system; you may do this by double-clicking it. * In the PWS Manager, right click on a given directory you want to add PHP support to, and select Properties. Check the 'Execute' checkbox, and confirm. _________________________________________________________________ Windows and PWS/IIS 3 The recommended method for configuring these servers is to use the REG file included with the distribution (pws-php4cgi.reg in the SAPI folder for PHP 4, or pws-php5cgi.reg in the main folder for PHP 5). You may want to edit this file and make sure the extensions and PHP install directories match your configuration. Or you can follow the steps below to do it manually. Warning These steps involve working directly with the Windows registry. One error here can leave your system in an unstable state. We highly recommend that you back up your registry first. The PHP Development team will not be held responsible if you damage your registry. * Run Regedit. * Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /System /CurrentControlSet /Services /W3Svc /Parameters /ScriptMap. * On the edit menu select: New->String Value. * Type in the extension you wish to use for your php scripts. For example .php * Double click on the new string value and enter the path to php.exe in the value data field. ex: C:\php\php.exe for PHP 4, or C:\php\php-cgi.exe for PHP 5. * Repeat these steps for each extension you wish to associate with PHP scripts. The following steps do not affect the web server installation and only apply if you want your PHP scripts to be executed when they are run from the command line (ex. run C:\myscripts\test.php) or by double clicking on them in a directory viewer window. You may wish to skip these steps as you might prefer the PHP files to load into a text editor when you double click on them. * Navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT * On the edit menu select: New->Key. * Name the key to the extension you setup in the previous section. ex: .php * Highlight the new key and in the right side pane, double click the "default value" and enter phpfile. * Repeat the last step for each extension you set up in the previous section. * Now create another New->Key under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and name it phpfile. * Highlight the new key phpfile and in the right side pane, double click the "default value" and enter PHP Script. * Right click on the phpfile key and select New->Key, name it Shell. * Right click on the Shell key and select New->Key, name it open. * Right click on the open key and select New->Key, name it command. * Highlight the new key command and in the right side pane, double click the "default value" and enter the path to php.exe. ex: c:\php\php.exe -q %1. (don't forget the %1). * Exit Regedit. * If using PWS on Windows, reboot to reload the registry. PWS and IIS 3 users now have a fully operational system. IIS 3 users can use a nifty tool from Steven Genusa to configure their script maps. _________________________________________________________________ Apache 1.3.x on Microsoft Windows This section contains notes and hints specific to Apache 1.3.x installs of PHP on Microsoft Windows systems. There are also instructions and notes for Apache 2 on a separate page. Note: Please read the manual installation steps first! There are two ways to set up PHP to work with Apache 1.3.x on Windows. One is to use the CGI binary (php.exe for PHP 4 and php-cgi.exe for PHP 5), the other is to use the Apache Module DLL. In either case you need to edit your httpd.conf to configure Apache to work with PHP, and then restart the server. It is worth noting here that now the SAPI module has been made more stable under Windows, we recommend it's use above the CGI binary, since it is more transparent and secure. Although there can be a few variations of configuring PHP under Apache, these are simple enough to be used by the newcomer. Please consult the Apache Documentation for further configuration directives. After changing the configuration file, remember to restart the server, for example, NET STOP APACHE followed by NET START APACHE, if you run Apache as a Windows Service, or use your regular shortcuts. Note: Remember that when adding path values in the Apache configuration files on Windows, all backslashes such as c:\directory\file.ext must be converted to forward slashes, as c:/directory/file.ext. _________________________________________________________________ Installing as an Apache module You should add the following lines to your Apache httpd.conf file: Example 2-3. PHP as an Apache 1.3.x module This assumes PHP is installed to c:\php. Adjust the path if this is not the case. For PHP 4: # Add to the end of the LoadModule section LoadModule php4_module "c:/php/php4apache.dll" # Add to the end of the AddModule section AddModule mod_php4.c For PHP 5: # Add to the end of the LoadModule section LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache.dll" # Add to the end of the AddModule section AddModule mod_php5.c For both: # Add this line inside the <IfModule mod_mime.c> conditional brace AddType application/x-httpd-php .php # For syntax highlighted .phps files, also add AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps _________________________________________________________________ Installing as a CGI binary If you unzipped the PHP package to C:\php\ as described in the Manual Installation Steps section, you need to insert these lines to your Apache configuration file to set up the CGI binary: Example 2-4. PHP and Apache 1.3.x as CGI ScriptAlias /php/ "c:/php/" AddType application/x-httpd-php .php # For PHP 4 Action application/x-httpd-php "/php/php.exe" # For PHP 5 Action application/x-httpd-php "/php/php-cgi.exe" # specify the directory where php.ini is SetEnv PHPRC C:/php Note that the second line in the list above can be found in the actual versions of httpd.conf, but it is commented out. Remember also to substitute the c:/php/ for your actual path to PHP. Warning By using the CGI setup, your server is open to several possible attacks. Please read our CGI security section to learn how to defend yourself from those attacks. If you would like to present PHP source files syntax highlighted, there is no such convenient option as with the module version of PHP. If you chose to configure Apache to use PHP as a CGI binary, you will need to use the highlight_file() function. To do this simply create a PHP script file and add this code: <?php highlight_file('some_php_script.php'); ?>. _________________________________________________________________ Apache 2.0.x on Microsoft Windows This section contains notes and hints specific to Apache 2.0.x installs of PHP on Microsoft Windows systems. We also have instructions and notes for Apache 1.3.x users on a separate page. Note: You should read the manual installation steps first! Warning We do not recommend using a threaded MPM in production with Apache2. Use the prefork MPM instead, or use Apache1. For information on why, read the following FAQ entry You are highly encouraged to take a look at the Apache Documentation to get a basic understanding of the Apache 2.0.x Server. Also consider to read the Windows specific notes for Apache 2.0.x before reading on here. PHP and Apache 2.0.x compatibility notes: The following versions of PHP are known to work with the most recent version of Apache 2.0.x: * PHP 4.3.0 or later available at http://www.php.net/downloads.php. * the latest stable development version. Get the source code http://snaps.php.net/php4-latest.tar.gz or download binaries for Windows http://snaps.php.net/win32/php4-win32-latest.zip. * a prerelease version downloadable from http://qa.php.net/. * you have always the option to obtain PHP through anonymous CVS. These versions of PHP are compatible to Apache 2.0.40 and later. Apache 2.0 SAPI-support started with PHP 4.2.0. PHP 4.2.3 works with Apache 2.0.39, don't use any other version of Apache with PHP 4.2.3. However, the recommended setup is to use PHP 4.3.0 or later with the most recent version of Apache2. All mentioned versions of PHP will work still with Apache 1.3.x. Warning Apache 2.0.x is designed to run on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. At this time, support for Windows 9x is incomplete. Apache 2.0.x is not expected to work on those platforms at this time. Download the most recent version of Apache 2.0.x and a fitting PHP version. Follow the Manual Installation Steps and come back to go on with the integration of PHP and Apache. There are two ways to set up PHP to work with Apache 2.0.x on Windows. One is to use the CGI binary the other is to use the Apache module DLL. In either case you need to edit your httpd.conf to configure Apache to work with PHP and then restart the server. Note: Remember that when adding path values in the Apache configuration files on Windows, all backslashes such as c:\directory\file.ext must be converted to forward slashes, as c:/directory/file.ext. _________________________________________________________________ Installing as a CGI binary You need to insert these three lines to your Apache httpd.conf configuration file to set up the CGI binary: Example 2-5. PHP and Apache 2.0 as CGI ScriptAlias /php/ "c:/php/" AddType application/x-httpd-php .php # For PHP 4 Action application/x-httpd-php "/php/php.exe" # For PHP 5 Action application/x-httpd-php "/php/php-cgi.exe" Warning By using the CGI setup, your server is open to several possible attacks. Please read our CGI security section to learn how to defend yourself from those attacks. _________________________________________________________________ Installing as an Apache module You need to insert these two lines to your Apache httpd.conf configuration file to set up the PHP module for Apache 2.0: Example 2-6. PHP and Apache 2.0 as Module # For PHP 4 do something like this: LoadModule php4_module "c:/php/php4apache2.dll" AddType application/x-httpd-php .php # For PHP 5 do something like this: LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2.dll" AddType application/x-httpd-php .php # configure the path to php.ini PHPIniDir "C:/php" Note: Remember to substitute the c:/php/ for your actual path to PHP in the above examples. Take care to use either php4apache2.dll or php5apache2.dll in your LoadModule directive and not php4apache.dll or php5apache.dll as the latter ones are designed to run with Apache 1.3.x. Note: If you want to use content negotiation, read related FAQ. Warning Don't mix up your installation with DLL files from different PHP versions. You have the only choice to use the DLL's and extensions that ship with your downloaded PHP version. _________________________________________________________________ Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers on Microsoft Windows This section contains notes and hints specific to Sun Java System Web Server, Sun ONE Web Server, iPlanet and Netscape server installs of PHP on Windows. From PHP 4.3.3 on you can use PHP scripts with the NSAPI module to generate custom directory listings and error pages. Additional functions for Apache compatibility are also available. For support in current webservers read the note about subrequests. _________________________________________________________________ CGI setup on Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers To install PHP as a CGI handler, do the following: * Copy php4ts.dll to your systemroot (the directory where you installed Windows) * Make a file association from the command line. Type the following two lines: assoc .php=PHPScript ftype PHPScript=c:\php\php.exe %1 %* * In the Netscape Enterprise Administration Server create a dummy shellcgi directory and remove it just after (this step creates 5 important lines in obj.conf and allow the web server to handle shellcgi scripts). * In the Netscape Enterprise Administration Server create a new mime type (Category: type, Content-Type: magnus-internal/shellcgi, File Suffix:php). * Do it for each web server instance you want PHP to run More details about setting up PHP as a CGI executable can be found here: http://benoit.noss.free.fr/php/install-php.html _________________________________________________________________ NSAPI setup on Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers To install PHP with NSAPI, do the following: * Copy php4ts.dll to your systemroot (the directory where you installed Windows) * Make a file association from the command line. Type the following two lines: assoc .php=PHPScript ftype PHPScript=c:\php\php.exe %1 %* * In the Netscape Enterprise Administration Server create a new mime type (Category: type, Content-Type: magnus-internal/x-httpd-php, File Suffix: php). * Edit magnus.conf (for servers >= 6) or obj.conf (for servers < 6) and add the following: You should place the lines after mime types init. Init fn="load-modules" funcs="php4_init,php4_execute,php4_auth_trans" shlib="c: /php/sapi/php4nsapi.dll" Init fn="php4_init" LateInit="yes" errorString="Failed to initialise PHP!" [php _ini="c:/path/to/php.ini"] (PHP >= 4.3.3) The php_ini parameter is optional but with it you can place your php.ini in your webserver config directory. * Configure the default object in obj.conf (for virtual server classes [Sun Web Server 6.0+] in their vserver.obj.conf): In the <Object name="default"> section, place this line necessarily after all 'ObjectType' and before all 'AddLog' lines: Service fn="php4_execute" type="magnus-internal/x-httpd-php" [inikey=value inik ey=value ...] (PHP >= 4.3.3) As additional parameters you can add some special php.ini-values, for example you can set a docroot="/path/to/docroot" specific to the context php4_execute is called. For boolean ini-keys please use 0/1 as value, not "On","Off",... (this will not work correctly), e.g. zlib.output_compression=1 instead of zlib.output_compression="On" * This is only needed if you want to configure a directory that only consists of PHP scripts (same like a cgi-bin directory): <Object name="x-httpd-php"> ObjectType fn="force-type" type="magnus-internal/x-httpd-php" Service fn=php4_execute [inikey=value inikey=value ...] </Object> After that you can configure a directory in the Administration server and assign it the style x-httpd-php. All files in it will get executed as PHP. This is nice to hide PHP usage by renaming files to .html. * Restart your web service and apply changes * Do it for each web server instance you want PHP to run Note: More details about setting up PHP as an NSAPI filter can be found here: http://benoit.noss.free.fr/php/install-php4.html Note: The stacksize that PHP uses depends on the configuration of the webserver. If you get crashes with very large PHP scripts, it is recommended to raise it with the Admin Server (in the section "MAGNUS EDITOR"). _________________________________________________________________ CGI environment and recommended modifications in php.ini Important when writing PHP scripts is the fact that Sun JSWS/Sun ONE WS/iPlanet/Netscape is a multithreaded web server. Because of that all requests are running in the same process space (the space of the webserver itself) and this space has only one environment. If you want to get CGI variables like PATH_INFO, HTTP_HOST etc. it is not the correct way to try this in the old PHP 3.x way with getenv() or a similar way (register globals to environment, $_ENV). You would only get the environment of the running webserver without any valid CGI variables! Note: Why are there (invalid) CGI variables in the environment? Answer: This is because you started the webserver process from the admin server which runs the startup script of the webserver, you wanted to start, as a CGI script (a CGI script inside of the admin server!). This is why the environment of the started webserver has some CGI environment variables in it. You can test this by starting the webserver not from the administration server. Use the command line as root user and start it manually - you will see there are no CGI-like environment variables. Simply change your scripts to get CGI variables in the correct way for PHP 4.x by using the superglobal $_SERVER. If you have older scripts which use $HTTP_HOST, etc., you should turn on register_globals in php.ini and change the variable order too (important: remove "E" from it, because you do not need the environment here): variables_order = "GPCS" register_globals = On _________________________________________________________________ Special use for error pages or self-made directory listings (PHP >= 4.3.3) You can use PHP to generate the error pages for "404 Not Found" or similar. Add the following line to the object in obj.conf for every error page you want to overwrite: Error fn="php4_execute" code=XXX script="/path/to/script.php" [inikey=value ini key=value...] where XXX is the HTTP error code. Please delete any other Error directives which could interfere with yours. If you want to place a page for all errors that could exist, leave the code parameter out. Your script can get the HTTP status code with $_SERVER['ERROR_TYPE']. Another possibility is to generate self-made directory listings. Just create a PHP script which displays a directory listing and replace the corresponding default Service line for type="magnus-internal/directory" in obj.conf with the following: Service fn="php4_execute" type="magnus-internal/directory" script="/path/to/scr ipt.php" [inikey=value inikey=value...] For both error and directory listing pages the original URI and translated URI are in the variables $_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] and $_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED']. _________________________________________________________________ Note about nsapi_virtual() and subrequests (PHP >= 4.3.3) The NSAPI module now supports the nsapi_virtual() function (alias: virtual()) to make subrequests on the webserver and insert the result in the webpage. The problem is, that this function uses some undocumented features from the NSAPI library. Under Unix this is not a problem, because the module automatically looks for the needed functions and uses them if available. If not, nsapi_virtual() is disabled. Under Windows limitations in the DLL handling need the use of a automatic detection of the most recent ns-httpdXX.dll file. This is tested for servers till version 6.1. If a newer version of the Sun server is used, the detection fails and nsapi_virtual() is disabled. If this is the case, try the following: Add the following parameter to php4_init in magnus.conf/obj.conf: Init fn=php4_init ... server_lib="ns-httpdXX.dll" where XX is the correct DLL version number. To get it, look in the server-root for the correct DLL name. The DLL with the biggest filesize is the right one. You can check the status by using the phpinfo() function. Note: But be warned: Support for nsapi_virtual() is EXPERIMENTAL!!! _________________________________________________________________ OmniHTTPd Server This section contains notes and hints specific to OmniHTTPd on Windows. Note: You should read the manual installation steps first! Warning By using the CGI setup, your server is open to several possible attacks. Please read our CGI security section to learn how to defend yourself from those attacks. You need to complete the following steps to make PHP work with OmniHTTPd. This is a CGI executable setup. SAPI is supported by OmniHTTPd, but some tests have shown that it is not so stable to use PHP as an ISAPI module. Important for CGI users: Read the faq on cgi.force_redirect for important details. This directive needs to be set to 0. 1. Install OmniHTTPd server. 2. Right click on the blue OmniHTTPd icon in the system tray and select Properties 3. Click on Web Server Global Settings 4. On the 'External' tab, enter: virtual = .php | actual = c:\php\php.exe (use php-cgi.exe if installing PHP 5), and use the Add button. 5. On the Mime tab, enter: virtual = wwwserver/stdcgi | actual = .php, and use the Add button. 6. Click OK Repeat steps 2 - 6 for each extension you want to associate with PHP. Note: Some OmniHTTPd packages come with built in PHP support. You can choose at setup time to do a custom setup, and uncheck the PHP component. We recommend you to use the latest PHP binaries. Some OmniHTTPd servers come with PHP 4 beta distributions, so you should choose not to set up the built in support, but install your own. If the server is already on your machine, use the Replace button in Step 4 and 5 to set the new, correct information. _________________________________________________________________ Sambar Server on Microsoft Windows This section contains notes and hints specific to the Sambar Server for Windows. Note: You should read the manual installation steps first! This list describes how to set up the ISAPI module to work with the Sambar server on Windows. * Find the file called mappings.ini (in the config directory) in the Sambar install directory. * Open mappings.ini and add the following line under [ISAPI]: Example 2-7. ISAPI configuration of Sambar #for PHP 4 *.php = c:\php\php4isapi.dll #for PHP 5 *.php = c:\php\php5isapi.dll (This line assumes that PHP was installed in c:\php.) * Now restart the Sambar server for the changes to take effect. _________________________________________________________________ Xitami on Microsoft Windows This section contains notes and hints specific to Xitami on Windows. Note: You should read the manual installation steps first! This list describes how to set up the PHP CGI binary to work with Xitami on Windows. Important for CGI users: Read the faq on cgi.force_redirect for important details. This directive needs to be set to 0. If you want to use $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] you have to enable the cgi.fix_pathinfo directive. Warning By using the CGI setup, your server is open to several possible attacks. Please read our CGI security section to learn how to defend yourself from those attacks. * Make sure the webserver is running, and point your browser to xitamis admin console (usually http://127.0.0.1/admin), and click on Configuration. * Navigate to the Filters, and put the extension which PHP should parse (i.e. .php) into the field File extensions (.xxx). * In Filter command or script put the path and name of your PHP CGI executable i.e. C:\php\php.exe for PHP 4, or C:\php\php-cgi.exe for PHP 5. * Press the 'Save' icon. * Restart the server to reflect changes. _________________________________________________________________ Installation of extensions on Windows After installing PHP and a webserver on Windows, you will probably want to install some extensions for added functionality. You can choose which extensions you would like to load when PHP starts by modifying your php.ini. You can also load a module dynamically in your script using dl(). The DLLs for PHP extensions are prefixed with php_. Note: In PHP 4.3.1 BCMath, Calendar, COM, Ctype, FTP, MySQL, ODBC, Overload, PCRE, Session, Tokenizer, WDDX, XML and Zlib support is built in. You don't need to load any additional extensions in order to use these functions. See your distributions README.txt or install.txt or this table for a list of built in modules. The default location PHP searches for extensions is c:\php4\extensions in PHP 4 and c:\php5 in PHP 5. To change this setting to reflect your setup of PHP edit your php.ini file: * You will need to change the extension_dir setting to point to the directory where your extensions lives, or where you have placed your php_*.dll files. Please do not forget the last backslash. For example: extension_dir = c:/php/extensions/ * Enable the extension(s) in php.ini you want to use by uncommenting the extension=php_*.dll lines in php.ini. This is done by deleting the leading ; from the extension you want to load. Example 2-8. Enable Bzip2 extension for PHP-Windows // change the following line from ... ;extension=php_bz2.dll // ... to extension=php_bz2.dll * Some of the extensions need extra DLLs to work. Couple of them can be found in the distribution package, in the C:\php\dlls\ folder in PHP 4 or in the main folder in PHP 5, but some, for example Oracle (php_oci8.dll) require DLLs which are not bundled with the distribution package. If you are installing PHP 4, copy the bundled DLLs from C:\php\dlls folder to the main C:\php folder. Don't forget to include C:\php in the system PATH (this process is explained in a separate FAQ entry). * Some of these DLLs are not bundled with the PHP distribution. See each extensions documentation page for details. Also, read the manual section titled Installation of PECL extensions for details on PECL. An increasingly large number of PHP extensions are found in PECL, and these extensions require a separate download. Note: If you are running a server module version of PHP remember to restart your webserver to reflect your changes to php.ini. The following table describes some of the extensions available and required additional dlls. Table 2-1. PHP Extensions Extension Description Notes php_bz2.dll bzip2 compression functions None php_calendar.dll Calendar conversion functions Built in since PHP 4.0.3 php_cpdf.dll ClibPDF functions None php_crack.dll Crack functions None php_ctype.dll ctype family functions Built in since PHP 4.3.0 php_curl.dll CURL, Client URL library functions Requires: libeay32.dll, ssleay32.dll (bundled) php_cybercash.dll Cybercash payment functions PHP <= 4.2.0 php_db.dll DBM functions Deprecated. Use DBA instead (php_dba.dll) php_dba.dll DBA: DataBase (dbm-style) Abstraction layer functions None php_dbase.dll dBase functions None php_dbx.dll dbx functions php_domxml.dll DOM XML functions PHP <= 4.2.0 requires: libxml2.dll (bundled) PHP >= 4.3.0 requires: iconv.dll (bundled) php_dotnet.dll .NET functions PHP <= 4.1.1 php_exif.dll EXIF functions php_mbstring.dll. And, php_exif.dll must be loaded after php_mbstring.dll in php.ini. php_fbsql.dll FrontBase functions PHP <= 4.2.0 php_fdf.dll FDF: Forms Data Format functions. Requires: fdftk.dll (bundled) php_filepro.dll filePro functions Read-only access php_ftp.dll FTP functions Built-in since PHP 4.0.3 php_gd.dll GD library image functions Removed in PHP 4.3.2. Also note that truecolor functions are not available in GD1, instead, use php_gd2.dll. php_gd2.dll GD library image functions GD2 php_gettext.dll Gettext functions PHP <= 4.2.0 requires gnu_gettext.dll (bundled), PHP >= 4.2.3 requires libintl-1.dll, iconv.dll (bundled). php_hyperwave.dll HyperWave functions None php_iconv.dll ICONV characterset conversion Requires: iconv-1.3.dll (bundled), PHP >=4.2.1 iconv.dll php_ifx.dll Informix functions Requires: Informix libraries php_iisfunc.dll IIS management functions None php_imap.dll IMAP POP3 and NNTP functions None php_ingres.dll Ingres II functions Requires: Ingres II libraries php_interbase.dll InterBase functions Requires: gds32.dll (bundled) php_java.dll Java functions PHP <= 4.0.6 requires: jvm.dll (bundled) php_ldap.dll LDAP functions PHP <= 4.2.0 requires libsasl.dll (bundled), PHP >= 4.3.0 requires libeay32.dll, ssleay32.dll (bundled) php_mbstring.dll Multi-Byte String functions None php_mcrypt.dll Mcrypt Encryption functions Requires: libmcrypt.dll php_mhash.dll Mhash functions PHP >= 4.3.0 requires: libmhash.dll (bundled) php_mime_magic.dll Mimetype functions Requires: magic.mime (bundled) php_ming.dll Ming functions for Flash None php_msql.dll mSQL functions Requires: msql.dll (bundled) php_mssql.dll MSSQL functions Requires: ntwdblib.dll (bundled) php_mysql.dll MySQL functions PHP >= 5.0.0, requires libmysql.dll (bundled) php_mysqli.dll MySQLi functions PHP >= 5.0.0, requires libmysql.dll (libmysqli.dll in PHP <= 5.0.2) (bundled) php_oci8.dll Oracle 8 functions Requires: Oracle 8.1+ client libraries php_openssl.dll OpenSSL functions Requires: libeay32.dll (bundled) php_oracle.dll Oracle functions Requires: Oracle 7 client libraries php_overload.dll Object overloading functions Built in since PHP 4.3.0 php_pdf.dll PDF functions None php_pgsql.dll PostgreSQL functions None php_printer.dll Printer functions None php_shmop.dll Shared Memory functions None php_snmp.dll SNMP get and walk functions NT only! php_soap.dll SOAP functions PHP >= 5.0.0 php_sockets.dll Socket functions None php_sybase_ct.dll Sybase functions Requires: Sybase client libraries php_tidy.dll Tidy functions PHP >= 5.0.0 php_tokenizer.dll Tokenizer functions Built in since PHP 4.3.0 php_w32api.dll W32api functions None php_xmlrpc.dll XML-RPC functions PHP >= 4.2.1 requires: iconv.dll (bundled) php_xslt.dll XSLT functions PHP <= 4.2.0 requires sablot.dll, expat.dll (bundled). PHP >= 4.2.1 requires sablot.dll, expat.dll, iconv.dll (bundled). php_yaz.dll YAZ functions Requires: yaz.dll (bundled) php_zip.dll Zip File functions Read only access php_zlib.dll ZLib compression functions Built in since PHP 4.3.0 _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 3. Installation of PECL extensions Introduction to PECL Installations PHP extensions may be installed in a variety of ways. PECL is a repository of PHP extensions living within the PEAR structure, and the following demonstrates how to install these extensions. These instructions assume /your/phpsrcdir/ is the path to the PHP source, and extname is the name of the PECL extension. Adjust accordingly. These instructions also assume a familiarity with the pear command. Shared extensions may be installed by including them inside of php.ini using the extension PHP directive. See also the extensions_dir directive, and dl(). The installation methods described below do not automatically configure PHP to include these extensions, this step must be done manually. When building PHP modules, it's important to have the appropriate versions of the required tools (autoconf, automake, libtool, etc.) See the Anonymous CVS Instructions for details on the required tools, and required versions. _________________________________________________________________ Downloading PECL extensions There are several options for downloading PECL extensions, such as: * http://pecl.php.net Listed here is information like the ChangeLog, release information, requirements, revisions, etc. Although not every PECL extension has a webpage, most do. * pear download extname The pear command may also be used to download source files. Specific revisions may also be specified. * CVS All PECL files reside in CVS. A web-based view may be seen at http://cvs.php.net/pecl/. To download straight from CVS, consider the following where phpfi is the password for user cvsread: $ cvs -d:pserver:cvsread@cvs.php.net:/repository login $ cvs -d:pserver:cvsread@cvs.php.net:/repository co pecl/extname * Windows downloads Windows users may find compiled PECL binaries by downloading the Collection of PECL modules from the PHP Downloads page, and by retrieving a PECL Snapshot. To compile PHP under Windows, read the Win32 Build README. _________________________________________________________________ PECL for Windows users Like with any other PHP extension DLL, to install move the PECL extension DLLs into the extension_dir folder and include them within php.ini. For example: extension=php_extname.dll After doing this, restart the web server. _________________________________________________________________ Compiling shared PECL extensions with PEAR PEAR makes it easy to create shared PHP extensions. Using the pear command, do the following: $ pear install extname That will download the source for extname, and compile it on the system. This results in an extname.so file that may then be included in php.ini In case the systems preferred_state is set higher than an available extname version, like it's set to stable and the extension is still in beta, either alter the preferred_state via pear config-set or specify a specific version of the PECL extension. For example: $ pear install extname-0.1.1 Regardless, pear will copy this extname.so into the extensions directory. Adjust php.ini accordingly. _________________________________________________________________ Compiling shared PECL extensions with phpize If using pear is not an option, like for building shared PECL extensions from CVS, or for unreleased PECL packages, then creating a shared extension may also be done by manually using the phpize command. The pear command essentially does this but it may also be done manually. Assuming the source file is named extname.tgz, and that it was downloaded into the current directory, consider the following: $ pear download extname $ gzip -d < extname.tgz | tar -xvf - $ cd extname $ phpize $ ./configure && make Upon success, this will create extname.so and put it into the modules/ and/or .libs/ directory within the extname/ source. Move this shared extension (extname.so) into the PHP extensions directory, and adjust php.ini accordingly. _________________________________________________________________ Compiling PECL extensions statically into PHP To statically include the extension within the PHP build, put the extensions source into the ext/ directory found in the PHP source. For example: $ cd /your/phpsrcdir/ext $ pear download extname $ gzip -d < extname.tgz | tar -xvf - $ mv extname-x.x.x extname $ rm package.xml This will result in the following directory: /your/phpsrcdir/ext/extname From here, build PHP as normal: $ cd /your/phpsrcdir $ ./buildconf $ ./configure --help $ ./configure --with-extname --enable-someotherext --with-foobar $ make $ make install Whether --enable-extname or --with-extname is used depends on the extension. Typically an extension that does not require external libraries uses --enable. To be sure, run the following after buildconf: $ ./configure --help | grep extname _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4. Problems? Read the FAQ Some problems are more common than others. The most common ones are listed in the PHP FAQ, part of this manual. _________________________________________________________________ Other problems If you are still stuck, someone on the PHP installation mailing list may be able to help you. You should check out the archive first, in case someone already answered someone else who had the same problem as you. The archives are available from the support page on http://www.php.net/support.php. To subscribe to the PHP installation mailing list, send an empty mail to php-install-subscribe@lists.php.net. The mailing list address is php-install@lists.php.net. If you want to get help on the mailing list, please try to be precise and give the necessary details about your environment (which operating system, what PHP version, what web server, if you are running PHP as CGI or a server module, safe mode, etc...), and preferably enough code to make others able to reproduce and test your problem. _________________________________________________________________ Bug reports If you think you have found a bug in PHP, please report it. The PHP developers probably don't know about it, and unless you report it, chances are it won't be fixed. You can report bugs using the bug-tracking system at http://bugs.php.net/. Please do not send bug reports in mailing list or personal letters. The bug system is also suitable to submit feature requests. Read the How to report a bug document before submitting any bug reports! _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 5. Runtime Configuration The configuration file The configuration file (called php3.ini in PHP 3, and simply php.ini as of PHP 4) is read when PHP starts up. For the server module versions of PHP, this happens only once when the web server is started. For the CGI and CLI version, it happens on every invocation. The default location of php.ini is a compile time option (see the FAQ entry), but can be changed for the CGI and CLI version with the -c command line switch, see the chapter about using PHP from the command line. You can also use the environment variable PHPRC for an additional path to search for a php.ini file. If php-SAPI.ini exists (where SAPI is used SAPI, so the filename is e.g. php-cli.ini or php-apache.ini), it's used instead of php.ini. Note: The Apache web server changes the directory to root at startup causing PHP to attempt to read php.ini from the root filesystem if it exists. The php.ini directives handled by extensions are documented respectively on the pages of the extensions themselves. The list of the core directives is available in the appendix. Probably not all the PHP directives are documented in the manual though. For a completel list of directives available in your PHP version, please read your well commented php.ini file. Alternatively, you may find the the latest php.ini from CVS helpful too. Example 5-1. php.ini example ; any text on a line after an unquoted semicolon (;) is ignored [php] ; section markers (text within square brackets) are also ignored ; Boolean values can be set to either: ; true, on, yes ; or false, off, no, none register_globals = off track_errors = yes ; you can enclose strings in double-quotes include_path = ".:/usr/local/lib/php" ; backslashes are treated the same as any other character include_path = ".;c:\php\lib" _________________________________________________________________ How to change configuration settings Running PHP as an Apache module When using PHP as an Apache module, you can also change the configuration settings using directives in Apache configuration files (e.g. httpd.conf) and .htaccess files. You will need "AllowOverride Options" or "AllowOverride All" privileges to do so. With PHP 4 and PHP 5, there are several Apache directives that allow you to change the PHP configuration from within the Apache configuration files. For a listing of which directives are PHP_INI_ALL, PHP_INI_PERDIR, or PHP_INI_SYSTEM, have a look at the List of php.ini directives appendix. Note: With PHP 3, there are Apache directives that correspond to each configuration setting in the php3.ini name, except the name is prefixed by "php3_". php_value name value Sets the value of the specified directive. Can be used only with PHP_INI_ALL and PHP_INI_PERDIR type directives. To clear a previously set value use none as the value. Note: Don't use php_value to set boolean values. php_flag (see below) should be used instead. php_flag name on|off Used to set a boolean configuration directive. Can be used only with PHP_INI_ALL and PHP_INI_PERDIR type directives. php_admin_value name value Sets the value of the specified directive. This can not be used in .htaccess files. Any directive type set with php_admin_value can not be overridden by .htaccess or virtualhost directives. To clear a previously set value use none as the value. php_admin_flag name on|off Used to set a boolean configuration directive. This can not be used in .htaccess files. Any directive type set with php_admin_flag can not be overridden by .htaccess or virtualhost directives. Example 5-2. Apache configuration example <IfModule mod_php5.c> php_value include_path ".:/usr/local/lib/php" php_admin_flag safe_mode on </IfModule> <IfModule mod_php4.c> php_value include_path ".:/usr/local/lib/php" php_admin_flag safe_mode on </IfModule> <IfModule mod_php3.c> php3_include_path ".:/usr/local/lib/php" php3_safe_mode on </IfModule> Caution PHP constants do not exist outside of PHP. For example, in httpd.conf you can not use PHP constants such as E_ALL or E_NOTICE to set the error_reporting directive as they will have no meaning and will evaluate to 0. Use the associated bitmask values instead. These constants can be used in php.ini _________________________________________________________________ Changing PHP configuration via the Windows registry When running PHP on Windows, the configuration values can be modified on a per-directory basis using the Windows registry. The configuration values are stored in the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\PHP\Per Directory Values, in the sub-keys corresponding to the path names. For example, configuration values for the directory c:\inetpub\wwwroot would be stored in the key HKLM\SOFTWARE\PHP\Per Directory Values\c\inetpub\wwwroot. The settings for the directory would be active for any script running from this directory or any subdirectory of it. The values under the key should have the name of the PHP configuration directive and the string value. PHP constants in the values are not parsed. However, only configuration values changeable in PHP_INI_USER can be set this way, PHP_INI_PERDIR values can not. _________________________________________________________________ Other interfaces to PHP Regardless of how you run PHP, you can change certain values at runtime of your scripts through ini_set(). See the documentation on the ini_set() page for more information. If you are interested in a complete list of configuration settings on your system with their current values, you can execute the phpinfo() function, and review the resulting page. You can also access the values of individual configuration directives at runtime using ini_get() or get_cfg_var().