Installing PHP
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Table of Contents
Preface
1. General Installation Considerations
2. Installation on Unix systems
Apache 1.3.x on Unix systems
Apache 2.0 on Unix systems
Caudium
fhttpd related notes
Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers on Sun Solaris
CGI and command line setups
HP-UX specific installation notes
OpenBSD installation notes
Solaris specific installation tips
Debian GNU/Linux installation notes
3. Installation on Mac OS X
Using Packages
Using the bundled PHP
Compiling for OS X Server
Compiling for MacOS X Client
4. Installation of PECL extensions
Introduction to PECL Installations
Downloading PECL extensions
PECL for Windows users
Compiling shared PECL extensions with the pecl command
Compiling shared PECL extensions with phpize
Compiling PECL extensions statically into PHP
5. Problems?
Read the FAQ
Other problems
Bug reports
6. Runtime Configuration
The configuration file
How to change configuration settings
7. Installation FAQ
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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.unix
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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:
* Websites and web applications (server-side scripting)
* Command line scripting
* Desktop (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.
In case of 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.
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Chapter 2. Installation on Unix systems
This section will guide you through the general configuration and
installation of PHP on Unix systems. Be sure to investigate any
sections specific to your platform or web server before you begin the
process.
As our manual outlines in the General Installation Considerations
section, we are mainly dealing with web centric setups of PHP in this
section, although we will cover setting up PHP for command line usage
as well.
There are several ways to install PHP for the Unix platform, either
with a compile and configure process, or through various pre-packaged
methods. This documentation is mainly focused around the process of
compiling and configuring PHP. Many Unix like systems have some sort of
package installation system. This can assist in setting up a standard
configuration, but if you need to have a different set of features
(such as a secure server, or a different database driver), you may need
to build PHP and/or your web server. If you are unfamiliar with
building and compiling your own software, it is worth checking to see
whether somebody has already built a packaged version of PHP with the
features you need.
Prerequisite knowledge and software for compiling:
* Basic Unix skills (being able to operate "make" and a C compiler)
* An ANSI C compiler
* flex: Version 2.5.4
* bison: Version 1.28 (preferred), 1.35, or 1.75
* A web server
* Any module specific components (such as gd, pdf libs, etc.)
The initial PHP setup and configuration process is controlled by the
use of the command line options of the configure script. You could get
a list of all available options along with short explanations running
./configure --help. Our manual documents the different options
separately. You will find the core options in the appendix, while the
different extension specific options are descibed on the reference
pages.
When PHP is configured, you are ready to build the module and/or
executables. The command make should take care of this. If it fails and
you can't figure out why, see the Problems section.
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Apache 1.3.x on Unix systems
This section contains notes and hints specific to Apache installs of
PHP on Unix platforms. We also have instructions and notes for Apache 2
on a separate page.
You can select arguments to add to the configure on line 10 below from
the list of core configure options and from extension specific options
described at the respective places in the manual. The version numbers
have been omitted here, to ensure the instructions are not incorrect.
You will need to replace the 'xxx' here with the correct values from
your files.
Example 2-1. Installation Instructions (Apache Shared Module Version)
for PHP
1. gunzip apache_xxx.tar.gz
2. tar -xvf apache_xxx.tar
3. gunzip php-xxx.tar.gz
4. tar -xvf php-xxx.tar
5. cd apache_xxx
6. ./configure --prefix=/www --enable-module=so
7. make
8. make install
9. cd ../php-xxx
10. Now, configure your PHP. This is where you customize your PHP
with various options, like which extensions will be enabled. Do a
./configure --help for a list of available options. In our example
we'll do a simple configure with Apache 1 and MySQL support. Your
path to apxs may differ from our example.
./configure --with-mysql --with-apxs=/www/bin/apxs
11. make
12. make install
If you decide to change your configure options after installation,
you only need to repeat the last three steps. You only need to
restart apache for the new module to take effect. A recompile of
Apache is not needed.
Note that unless told otherwise, 'make install' will also install PEAR,
various PHP tools such as phpize, install the PHP CLI, and more.
13. Setup your php.ini file:
cp php.ini-dist /usr/local/lib/php.ini
You may edit your .ini file to set PHP options. If you prefer your
php.ini in another location, use --with-config-file-path=/some/path in
step 10.
If you instead choose php.ini-recommended, be certain to read the list
of changes within, as they affect how PHP behaves.
14. Edit your httpd.conf to load the PHP module. The path on the right hand
side of the LoadModule statement must point to the path of the PHP
module on your system. The make install from above may have already
added this for you, but be sure to check.
For PHP 4:
LoadModule php4_module libexec/libphp4.so
For PHP 5:
LoadModule php5_module libexec/libphp5.so
15. And in the AddModule section of httpd.conf, somewhere under the
ClearModuleList, add this:
For PHP 4:
AddModule mod_php4.c
For PHP 5:
AddModule mod_php5.c
16. Tell Apache to parse certain extensions as PHP. For example,
let's have Apache parse the .php extension as PHP. You could
have any extension(s) parse as PHP by simply adding more, with
each separated by a space. We'll add .phtml to demonstrate.
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml
It's also common to setup the .phps extension to show highlighted PHP
source, this can be done with:
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
17. Use your normal procedure for starting the Apache server. (You must
stop and restart the server, not just cause the server to reload by
using a HUP or USR1 signal.)
Alternatively, to install PHP as a static object:
Example 2-2. Installation Instructions (Static Module Installation for
Apache) for PHP
1. gunzip -c apache_1.3.x.tar.gz | tar xf -
2. cd apache_1.3.x
3. ./configure
4. cd ..
5. gunzip -c php-5.x.y.tar.gz | tar xf -
6. cd php-5.x.y
7. ./configure --with-mysql --with-apache=../apache_1.3.x
8. make
9. make install
10. cd ../apache_1.3.x
11. ./configure --prefix=/www --activate-module=src/modules/php5/libphp5.a
(The above line is correct! Yes, we know libphp5.a does not exist at this
stage. It isn't supposed to. It will be created.)
12. make
(you should now have an httpd binary which you can copy to your Apache bin d
ir if
it is your first install then you need to "make install" as well)
13. cd ../php-5.x.y
14. cp php.ini-dist /usr/local/lib/php.ini
15. You can edit /usr/local/lib/php.ini file to set PHP options.
Edit your httpd.conf or srm.conf file and add:
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
Note: Replace php-5 by php-4 and php5 by php4 in PHP 4.
Depending on your Apache install and Unix variant, there are many
possible ways to stop and restart the server. Below are some typical
lines used in restarting the server, for different apache/unix
installations. You should replace /path/to/ with the path to these
applications on your systems.
Example 2-3. Example commands for restarting Apache
1. Several Linux and SysV variants:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart
2. Using apachectl scripts:
/path/to/apachectl stop
/path/to/apachectl start
3. httpdctl and httpsdctl (Using OpenSSL), similar to apachectl:
/path/to/httpsdctl stop
/path/to/httpsdctl start
4. Using mod_ssl, or another SSL server, you may want to manually
stop and start:
/path/to/apachectl stop
/path/to/apachectl startssl
The locations of the apachectl and http(s)dctl binaries often vary. If
your system has locate or whereis or which commands, these can assist
you in finding your server control programs.
Different examples of compiling PHP for apache are as follows:
./configure --with-apxs --with-pgsql
This will create a libphp5.so (or libphp4.so in PHP 4) shared library
that is loaded into Apache using a LoadModule line in Apache's
httpd.conf file. The PostgreSQL support is embedded into this library.
./configure --with-apxs --with-pgsql=shared
This will create a libphp4.so shared library for Apache, but it will
also create a pgsql.so shared library that is loaded into PHP either by
using the extension directive in php.ini file or by loading it
explicitly in a script using the dl() function.
./configure --with-apache=/path/to/apache_source --with-pgsql
This will create a libmodphp5.a library, a mod_php5.c and some
accompanying files and copy this into the src/modules/php5 directory in
the Apache source tree. Then you compile Apache using
--activate-module=src/modules/php5/libphp5.a and the Apache build
system will create libphp5.a and link it statically into the httpd
binary (replace php5 by php4 in PHP 4). The PostgreSQL support is
included directly into this httpd binary, so the final result here is a
single httpd binary that includes all of Apache and all of PHP.
./configure --with-apache=/path/to/apache_source --with-pgsql=shared
Same as before, except instead of including PostgreSQL support directly
into the final httpd you will get a pgsql.so shared library that you
can load into PHP from either the php.ini file or directly using dl().
When choosing to build PHP in different ways, you should consider the
advantages and drawbacks of each method. Building as a shared object
will mean that you can compile apache separately, and don't have to
recompile everything as you add to, or change, PHP. Building PHP into
apache (static method) means that PHP will load and run faster. For
more information, see the Apache web page on DSO support.
Note: Apache's default httpd.conf currently ships with a section
that looks like this:
User nobody
Group "#-1"
Unless you change that to "Group nogroup" or something like that
("Group daemon" is also very common) PHP will not be able to open
files.
Note: Make sure you specify the installed version of apxs when using
--with-apxs=/path/to/apxs. You must NOT use the apxs version that is
in the apache sources but the one that is actually installed on your
system.
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Apache 2.0 on Unix systems
This section contains notes and hints specific to Apache 2.0 installs
of PHP on Unix systems.
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 related FAQ entry on using Apache2 with a threaded MPM
You are highly encouraged to take a look at the Apache Documentation to
get a basic understanding of the Apache 2.0 Server.
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/php5-latest.tar.gz or download binaries for
Windows http://snaps.php.net/win32/php5-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.
Download the most recent version of Apache 2.0 and a fitting PHP
version from the above mentioned places. This quick guide covers only
the basics to get started with Apache 2.0 and PHP. For more information
read the Apache Documentation. The version numbers have been omitted
here, to ensure the instructions are not incorrect. You will need to
replace the 'NN' here with the correct values from your files.
Example 2-4. Installation Instructions (Apache 2 Shared Module Version)
1. gzip -d httpd-2_0_NN.tar.gz
2. tar xvf httpd-2_0_NN.tar
3. gunzip php-NN.tar.gz
4. tar -xvf php-NN.tar
5. cd httpd-2_0_NN
6. ./configure --enable-so
7. make
8. make install
Now you have Apache 2.0.NN available under /usr/local/apache2,
configured with loadable module support and the standard MPM prefork.
To test the installation use your normal procedure for starting
the Apache server, e.g.:
/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
and stop the server to go on with the configuration for PHP:
/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop.
9. cd ../php-NN
10. Now, configure your PHP. This is where you customize your PHP
with various options, like which extensions will be enabled. Do a
./configure --help for a list of available options. In our example
we'll do a simple configure with Apache 2 and MySQL support. Your
path to apxs may differ, in fact, the binary may even be named apxs2 on
your system.
./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs --with-mysql
11. make
12. make install
If you decide to change your configure options after installation,
you only need to repeat the last three steps. You only need to
restart apache for the new module to take effect. A recompile of
Apache is not needed.
Note that unless told otherwise, 'make install' will also install PEAR,
various PHP tools such as phpize, install the PHP CLI, and more.
13. Setup your php.ini
cp php.ini-dist /usr/local/lib/php.ini
You may edit your .ini file to set PHP options. If you prefer having
php.ini in another location, use --with-config-file-path=/some/path in
step 10.
If you instead choose php.ini-recommended, be certain to read the list
of changes within, as they affect how PHP behaves.
14. Edit your httpd.conf to load the PHP module. The path on the right hand
side of the LoadModule statement must point to the path of the PHP
module on your system. The make install from above may have already
added this for you, but be sure to check.
For PHP 4:
LoadModule php4_module modules/libphp4.so
For PHP 5:
LoadModule php5_module modules/libphp5.so
15. Tell Apache to parse certain extensions as PHP. For example,
let's have Apache parse the .php extension as PHP. You could
have any extension(s) parse as PHP by simply adding more, with
each separated by a space. We'll add .phtml to demonstrate.
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml
It's also common to setup the .phps extension to show highlighted PHP
source, this can be done with:
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
16. Use your normal procedure for starting the Apache server, e.g.:
/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
Following the steps above you will have a running Apache 2.0 with
support for PHP as SAPI module. Of course there are many more
configuration options available for both, Apache and PHP. For more
information use ./configure --help in the corresponding source tree. In
case you wish to build a multithreaded version of Apache 2.0 you must
overwrite the standard MPM-Module prefork either with worker or
perchild. To do so append to your configure line in step 6 above either
the option --with-mpm=worker or --with-mpm=perchild. Take care about
the consequences and understand what you are doing. For more
information read the Apache documentation about the MPM-Modules.
Note: If you want to use content negotiation, read the Apache
MultiViews FAQ.
Note: To build a multithreaded version of Apache your system must
support threads. This also implies to build PHP with experimental
Zend Thread Safety (ZTS). Therefore not all extensions might be
available. The recommended setup is to build Apache with the
standard prefork MPM-Module.
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Caudium
PHP 4 can be built as a Pike module for the Caudium webserver. Note
that this is not supported with PHP 3. Follow the simple instructions
below to install PHP 4 for Caudium.
Example 2-5. Caudium Installation Instructions
1. Make sure you have Caudium installed prior to attempting to
install PHP 4. For PHP 4 to work correctly, you will need Pike
7.0.268 or newer. For the sake of this example we assume that
Caudium is installed in /opt/caudium/server/.
2. Change directory to php-x.y.z (where x.y.z is the version number).
3. ./configure --with-caudium=/opt/caudium/server
4. make
5. make install
6. Restart Caudium if it's currently running.
7. Log into the graphical configuration interface and go to the
virtual server where you want to add PHP 4 support.
8. Click Add Module and locate and then add the PHP 4 Script Support module.
9. If the documentation says that the 'PHP 4 interpreter isn't
available', make sure that you restarted the server. If you did
check /opt/caudium/logs/debug/default.1 for any errors related to
<filename>PHP4.so</filename>. Also make sure that
<filename>caudium/server/lib/[pike-version]/PHP4.so</filename>
is present.
10. Configure the PHP Script Support module if needed.
You can of course compile your Caudium module with support for the
various extensions available in PHP 4. See the reference pages for
extension specific configure options.
Note: When compiling PHP 4 with MySQL support you must make sure
that the normal MySQL client code is used. Otherwise there might be
conflicts if your Pike already has MySQL support. You do this by
specifying a MySQL install directory the --with-mysql option.
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fhttpd related notes
To build PHP as an fhttpd module, answer "yes" to "Build as an fhttpd
module?" (the --with-fhttpd=DIR option to configure) and specify the
fhttpd source base directory. The default directory is
/usr/local/src/fhttpd. If you are running fhttpd, building PHP as a
module will give better performance, more control and remote execution
capability.
Note: Support for fhttpd is no longer available as of PHP 4.3.0.
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Sun, iPlanet and Netscape servers on Sun Solaris
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 Sun Solaris.
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 web servers read the note about subrequests.
You can find more information about setting up PHP for the Netscape
Enterprise Server (NES) here:
http://benoit.noss.free.fr/php/install-php4.html
To build PHP with Sun JSWS/Sun ONE WS/iPlanet/Netscape web servers,
enter the proper install directory for the --with-nsapi=[DIR] option.
The default directory is usually /opt/netscape/suitespot/. Please also
read /php-xxx-version/sapi/nsapi/nsapi-readme.txt.
1. Install the following packages from http://www.sunfreeware.com/ or
another download site:
autoconf-2.13
automake-1.4
bison-1_25-sol26-sparc-local
flex-2_5_4a-sol26-sparc-local
gcc-2_95_2-sol26-sparc-local
gzip-1.2.4-sol26-sparc-local
m4-1_4-sol26-sparc-local
make-3_76_1-sol26-sparc-local
mysql-3.23.24-beta (if you want mysql support)
perl-5_005_03-sol26-sparc-local
tar-1.13 (GNU tar)
2. Make sure your path includes the proper directories
PATH=.:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/ccs/bin and make it
available to your system export PATH.
3. gunzip php-x.x.x.tar.gz (if you have a .gz dist, otherwise go to
4).
4. tar xvf php-x.x.x.tar
5. Change to your extracted PHP directory: cd ../php-x.x.x
6. For the following step, make sure /opt/netscape/suitespot/ is where
your netscape server is installed. Otherwise, change to the correct
path and run:
./configure --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql \
--with-nsapi=/opt/netscape/suitespot/ \
--enable-libgcc
7. Run make followed by make install.
After performing the base install and reading the appropriate readme
file, you may need to perform some additional configuration steps.
Configuration Instructions for Sun/iPlanet/Netscape. Firstly you may
need to add some paths to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment for the
server to find all the shared libs. This can best done in the start
script for your web server. The start script is often located in:
/path/to/server/https-servername/start. You may also need to edit the
configuration files that are located in:
/path/to/server/https-servername/config/.
1. Add the following line to mime.types (you can do that by the
administration server):
type=magnus-internal/x-httpd-php exts=php
2. Edit magnus.conf (for servers >= 6) or obj.conf (for servers < 6)
and add the following, shlib will vary depending on your system, it
will be something like /opt/netscape/suitespot/bin/libphp4.so. You
should place the following lines after mime types init.
Init fn="load-modules" funcs="php4_init,php4_execute,php4_auth_trans" shlib="/op
t/netscape/suitespot/bin/libphp4.so"
Init fn="php4_init" LateInit="yes" errorString="Failed to initialize PHP!" [php_
ini="/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 web server config directory.
3. Configure the default object in obj.conf (for virtual server
classes [version 6.0+] in their vserver.obj.conf):
<Object name="default">
.
.
.
.#NOTE this next line should happen after all 'ObjectType' and before all 'AddLo
g' lines
Service fn="php4_execute" type="magnus-internal/x-httpd-php" [inikey=value inike
y=value ...]
.
.
</Object>
(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"
4. 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.
5. Setup of authentication: PHP authentication cannot be used with any
other authentication. ALL AUTHENTICATION IS PASSED TO YOUR PHP
SCRIPT. To configure PHP Authentication for the entire server, add
the following line to your default object:
<Object name="default">
AuthTrans fn=php4_auth_trans
.
.
.
</Object>
6. To use PHP Authentication on a single directory, add the following:
<Object ppath="d:\path\to\authenticated\dir\*">
AuthTrans fn=php4_auth_trans
</Object>
Note: The stacksize that PHP uses depends on the configuration of
the web server. 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 web
server 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 web server without any valid CGI variables!
Note: Why are there (invalid) CGI variables in the environment?
Answer: This is because you started the web server process from the
admin server which runs the startup script of the web server, you
wanted to start, as a CGI script (a CGI script inside of the admin
server!). This is why the environment of the started web server has
some CGI environment variables in it. You can test this by starting
the web server 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
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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 inik
ey=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/scri
pt.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 web server and insert the result
in the web page. This function uses some undocumented features from the
NSAPI library. On Unix the module automatically looks for the needed
functions and uses them if available. If not, nsapi_virtual() is
disabled.
Note: But be warned: Support for nsapi_virtual() is EXPERIMENTAL!!!
__________________________________________________________________
CGI and command line setups
The default is to build PHP as a CGI program. This creates a command
line interpreter, which can be used for CGI processing, or for
non-web-related PHP scripting. If you are running a web server PHP has
module support for, you should generally go for that solution for
performance reasons. However, the CGI version enables users to run
different PHP-enabled pages under different user-ids.
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.
As of PHP 4.3.0, some important additions have happened to PHP. A new
SAPI named CLI also exists and it has the same name as the CGI binary.
What is installed at {PREFIX}/bin/php depends on your configure line
and this is described in detail in the manual section named Using PHP
from the command line. For further details please read that section of
the manual.
__________________________________________________________________
Testing
If you have built PHP as a CGI program, you may test your build by
typing make test. It is always a good idea to test your build. This way
you may catch a problem with PHP on your platform early instead of
having to struggle with it later.
__________________________________________________________________
Benchmarking
If you have built PHP 3 as a CGI program, you may benchmark your build
by typing make bench. Note that if safe mode is on by default, the
benchmark may not be able to finish if it takes longer then the 30
seconds allowed. This is because the set_time_limit() can not be used
in safe mode. Use the max_execution_time configuration setting to
control this time for your own scripts. make bench ignores the
configuration file.
Note: make bench is only available for PHP 3.
__________________________________________________________________
Using Variables
Some server supplied environment variables are not defined in the
current CGI/1.1 specification. Only the following variables are defined
there: AUTH_TYPE, CONTENT_LENGTH, CONTENT_TYPE, GATEWAY_INTERFACE,
PATH_INFO, PATH_TRANSLATED, QUERY_STRING, REMOTE_ADDR, REMOTE_HOST,
REMOTE_IDENT, REMOTE_USER, REQUEST_METHOD, SCRIPT_NAME, SERVER_NAME,
SERVER_PORT, SERVER_PROTOCOL, and SERVER_SOFTWARE. Everything else
should be treated as 'vendor extensions'.
__________________________________________________________________
HP-UX specific installation notes
This section contains notes and hints specific to installing PHP on
HP-UX systems.
There are two main options for installing PHP on HP-UX systems. Either
compile it, or install a pre-compiled binary.
Official pre-compiled packages are located here:
http://software.hp.com/
Until this manual section is rewritten, the documentation about
compiling PHP (and related extensions) on HP-UX systems has been
removed. For now, consider reading the following external resource:
Building Apache and PHP on HP-UX 11.11
__________________________________________________________________
OpenBSD installation notes
This section contains notes and hints specific to installing PHP on
OpenBSD 3.6.
__________________________________________________________________
Using Binary Packages
Using binary packages to install PHP on OpenBSD is the recommended and
simplest method. The core package has been separated from the various
modules, and each can be installed and removed independently from the
others. The files you need can be found on your OpenBSD CD or on the
FTP site.
The main package you need to install is php4-core-4.3.8.tgz, which
contains the basic engine (plus gettext and iconv). Next, take a look
at the module packages, such as php4-mysql-4.3.8.tgz or
php4-imap-4.3.8.tgz. You need to use the phpxs command to activate and
deactivate these modules in your php.ini.
Example 2-6. OpenBSD Package Install Example
# pkg_add php4-core-4.3.8.tgz
# /usr/local/sbin/phpxs -s
# cp /usr/local/share/doc/php4/php.ini-recommended /var/www/conf/php.ini
(add in mysql)
# pkg_add php4-mysql-4.3.8.tgz
# /usr/local/sbin/phpxs -a mysql
(add in imap)
# pkg_add php4-imap-4.3.8.tgz
# /usr/local/sbin/phpxs -a imap
(remove mysql as a test)
# pkg_delete php4-mysql-4.3.8
# /usr/local/sbin/phpxs -r mysql
(install the PEAR libraries)
# pkg_add php4-pear-4.3.8.tgz
Read the packages(7) manual page for more information about binary
packages on OpenBSD.
__________________________________________________________________
Using Ports
You can also compile up PHP from source using the ports tree. However,
this is only recommended for users familiar with OpenBSD. The PHP 4
port is split into two sub-directories: core and extensions. The
extensions directory generates sub-packages for all of the supported
PHP modules. If you find you do not want to create some of these
modules, use the no_* FLAVOR. For example, to skip building the imap
module, set the FLAVOR to no_imap.
__________________________________________________________________
Common Problems
* The default install of Apache runs inside a chroot(2) jail, which
will restrict PHP scripts to accessing files under /var/www. You
will therefore need to create a /var/www/tmp directory for PHP
session files to be stored, or use an alternative session backend.
In addition, database sockets need to be placed inside the jail or
listen on the localhost interface. If you use network functions,
some files from /etc such as /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/services
will need to be moved into /var/www/etc. The OpenBSD PEAR package
automatically installs into the correct chroot directories, so no
special modification is needed there. More information on the
OpenBSD Apache is available in the OpenBSD FAQ.
* The OpenBSD 3.6 package for the gd extension requires XFree86 to be
installed. If you do not wish to use some of the font features that
require X11, install the php4-gd-4.3.8-no_x11.tgz package instead.
__________________________________________________________________
Older Releases
Older releases of OpenBSD used the FLAVORS system to compile up a
statically linked PHP. Since it is hard to generate binary packages
using this method, it is now deprecated. You can still use the old
stable ports trees if you wish, but they are unsupported by the OpenBSD
team. If you have any comments about this, the current maintainer for
the port is Anil Madhavapeddy (avsm at openbsd dot org).
__________________________________________________________________
Solaris specific installation tips
This section contains notes and hints specific to installing PHP on
Solaris systems.
__________________________________________________________________
Required software
Solaris installs often lack C compilers and their related tools. Read
this FAQ for information on why using GNU versions for some of these
tools is necessary. The required software is as follows:
* gcc (recommended, other C compilers may work)
* make
* flex
* bison
* m4
* autoconf
* automake
* perl
* gzip
* tar
* GNU sed
In addition, you will need to install (and possibly compile) any
additional software specific to your configuration, such as Oracle or
MySQL.
__________________________________________________________________
Using Packages
You can simplify the Solaris install process by using pkgadd to install
most of your needed components.
__________________________________________________________________
Debian GNU/Linux installation notes
This section contains notes and hints specific to installing PHP on
Debian GNU/Linux.
__________________________________________________________________
Using APT
While you can just download the PHP source and compile it yourself,
using Debian's packaging system is the simplest and cleanest method of
installing PHP. If you are not familiar with building software on
Linux, this is the way to go.
The first decision you need to make is whether you want to install
Apache 1.3.x or Apache 2.x. The corresponding PHP packages are
respectively named libapache-mod-php* and libapache2-mod-php*. The
steps given below will use Apache 1.3.x. Please note that, as of this
writing, there is no official Debian packages of PHP 5. Then the steps
given below will install PHP 4.
PHP is available in Debian as CGI or CLI flavour too, named
respectively php4-cgi and php4-cli. If you need them, you'll just have
to reproduce the following steps with the good package names. Another
special package you'd want to install is php4-pear. It contains a
minimal PEAR installation and the pear commandline utility.
If you need more recent packages of PHP than the Debian's stable ones
or if some PHP modules lacks the Debian official repository, perhaps
you should take a look at http://www.apt-get.org/. One of the results
found should be Dotdeb. This unofficial repository is maintained by
Guillaume Plessis and contains Debian packages of the most recent
versions of PHP 4 and PHP 5. To use it, just add the to following two
lines to your /etc/apt/sources.lists and run apt-get update :
Example 2-7. The two Dotdeb related lines
deb http://packages.dotdeb.org stable all
deb-src http://packages.dotdeb.org stable all
The last thing to consider is whether your list of packages is up to
date. If you have not updated it recently, you need to run apt-get
update before anything else. This way, you will be using the most
recent stable version of the Apache and PHP packages.
Now that everything is in place, you can use the following example to
install Apache and PHP:
Example 2-8. Debian Install Example with Apache 1.3
# apt-get install libapache-mod-php4
APT will automatically install the PHP 4 module for Apache 1.3, and all
its dependencies and then activate it. If you're not asked to restart
Apache during the install process, you'll have to do it manually :
Example 2-9. Stopping and starting Apache once PHP 4 is installed
# /etc/init.d/apache stop
# /etc/init.d/apache start
__________________________________________________________________
Better control on configuration
In the last section, PHP was installed with only core modules. This may
not be what you want and you will soon discover that you need more
activated modules, like MySQL, cURL, GD, etc.
When you compile PHP from source yourself, you need to activate modules
via the configure command. With APT, you just have to install
additional packages. They're all named 'php4-*' (or 'php5-*' if you
installed PHP 5 from a third party repository).
Example 2-10. Getting the list of PHP additional packages
# dpkg -l 'php4-*'
As you can see from the last output, there's a lot of PHP modules that
you can install (excluding the php4-cgi, php4-cli or php4-pear special
packages). Look at them closely and choose what you need. If you choose
a module and you do not have the proper libraries, APT will
automatically install all the dependencies for you.
If you choose to add the MySQL, cURL and GD support to PHP the command
will look something like this:
Example 2-11. Install PHP with MySQL, cURL and GD
# apt-get install php4-mysql php4-curl php4-gd
APT will automatically add the appropriate lines to your different
php.ini (/etc/php4/apache/php.ini, /etc/php4/cgi/php.ini, etc).
Example 2-12. These lines activate MySQL, cURL and GD into PHP
extension=mysql.so
extension=curl.so
extension=gd.so
You'll only have to stop/start Apache as previously to activate the
modules.
__________________________________________________________________
Common Problems
* If you see the PHP source instead of the result the script should
produce, APT has probably not included /etc/apache/conf.d/php4 in
your Apache 1.3 configuration. Please ensure that the following
line is present in your /etc/apache/httpd.conf file then stop/start
Apache:
Example 2-13. This line activates PHP 4 into Apache
# Include /etc/apache/conf.d/
* If you installed an additional module and if its functions are not
available in your scripts, please ensure that the appropriate line
is present in your php.ini, as seen before. APT may fail during the
installation of the additional module, due to a confusing debconf
configuration.
__________________________________________________________________
Chapter 3. Installation on Mac OS X
This section contains notes and hints specific to installing PHP on Mac
OS X. There are two slightly different versions of Mac OS X, Client and
Server, our manual deals with installing PHP on both systems. Note that
PHP is not available for MacOS 9 and earlier versions.
__________________________________________________________________
Using Packages
There are a few pre-packaged and pre-compiled versions of PHP for Mac
OS X. This can help in setting up a standard configuration, but if you
need to have a different set of features (such as a secure server, or a
different database driver), you may need to build PHP and/or your web
server yourself. If you are unfamiliar with building and compiling your
own software, it's worth checking whether somebody has already built a
packaged version of PHP with the features you need.
The following resources offer easy to install packages and precompiled
binaries for PHP on Mac OS:
* Darwin: http://darwinports.opendarwin.org/
* Entropy: http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/php/
* Fink: http://fink.sourceforge.net/
__________________________________________________________________
Using the bundled PHP
PHP has come standard with Macs since OS X version 10.0.0. Enabling PHP
with the default web server requires uncommenting a few lines in the
Apache configuration file httpd.conf whereas the CGI and/or CLI are
enabled by default (easily accessible via the Terminal program).
Enabling PHP using the instructions below is meant for quickly setting
up a local development environment. It's highly recommended to always
upgrade PHP to the newest version. Like most live software, newer
versions are created to fix bugs and add features and PHP being is no
different. See the appropriate MAC OS X installation documentation for
further details. The following instructions are geared towards a
beginner with details provided for getting a default setup to work. All
users are encouraged to compile, or install a new packaged version.
The standard installation type is using mod_php, and enabling the
bundled mod_php on Mac OS X for the Apache web server (the default web
server, that is accessible via System Preferences) involves the
following steps:
1. Locate and open the Apache configuration file. By default, the
location is as follows: /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
Using Finder or Spotlight to find this file may prove difficult as
by default it's private and owned by the root user.
Note: One way to open this is by using a Unix based text editor in
the Terminal, for example nano, and because the file is owned by
root we'll use the sudo command to open it (as root) so for example
type the following into the Terminal Application (after, it will
prompt for a password): sudo nano /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
Noteworthy nano commands: ^w (search), ^o (save), and ^x (exit)
where ^ represents the Ctrl key.
2. With a text editor, uncomment the lines (by removing the #) that
look similar to the following (these two lines are often not
together, locate them both in the file):
# LoadModule php4_module libexec/httpd/libphp4.so
# AddModule mod_php4.c
Notice the location/path. When building PHP in the future, the
above files should be replaced or commented out.
3. Be sure the desired extensions will parse as PHP (examples: .php
.html and .inc)
Due to the following statement already existing in httpd.conf (as
of Mac Panther), once PHP is enabled the .php files will
automatically parse as PHP.
<IfModule mod_php4.c>
# If php is turned on, we respect .php and .phps files.
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
# Since most users will want index.php to work we
# also automatically enable index.php
<IfModule mod_dir.c>
DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
4. Be sure the DirectoryIndex loads the desired default index file
This is also set in httpd.conf. Typically index.php and index.html
are used. By default index.php is enabled because it's also in the
PHP check shown above. Adjust accordingly.
5. Set the php.ini location or use the default
A typical default location on Mac OS X is /usr/local/php/php.ini
and a call to phpinfo() will reveal this information. If a php.ini
is not used, PHP will use all default values. See also the related
FAQ on finding php.ini.
6. Locate or set the DocumentRoot
This is the root directory for all the web files. Files in this
directory are served from the web server so the PHP files will
parse as PHP before outputting them to the browser. A typical
default path is /Library/WebServer/Documents but this can be set to
anything in httpd.conf. Alternatively, the default DocumentRoot for
individual users is /Users/yourusername/Sites
7. Create a phpinfo() file
The phpinfo() function will display information about PHP. Consider
creating a file in the DocumentRoot with the following PHP code:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
8. Restart Apache, and load the PHP file created above
To restart, either execute sudo apachectl graceful in the shell or
stop/start the "Personal Web Server" option in the OS X System
Preferences. By default, loading local files in the browser will
have an URL like so: http://localhost/info.php Or using the
DocumentRoot in the user directory is another option and would end
up looking like: http://localhost/~yourusername/info.php
The CLI (or CGI in older versions) is appropriately named php and
likely exists as /usr/bin/php. Open up the terminal, read the command
line section of the PHP manual, and execute php -v to check the PHP
version of this PHP binary. A call to phpinfo() will also reveal this
information.
__________________________________________________________________
Compiling for OS X Server
Mac OS X Server install.
1. Get the latest distributions of Apache and PHP.
2. Untar them, and run the configure program on Apache like so.
./configure --exec-prefix=/usr \
--localstatedir=/var \
--mandir=/usr/share/man \
--libexecdir=/System/Library/Apache/Modules \
--iconsdir=/System/Library/Apache/Icons \
--includedir=/System/Library/Frameworks/Apache.framework/Versions/1.3/Headers \
--enable-shared=max \
--enable-module=most \
--target=apache
3. If you want the compiler to do some optimization, you may also want
to add this line:
setenv OPTIM=-O2
4. Next, go to the PHP 4 source directory and configure it.
./configure --prefix=/usr \
--sysconfdir=/etc \
--localstatedir=/var \
--mandir=/usr/share/man \
--with-xml \
--with-apache=/src/apache_1.3.12
If you have any other additions (MySQL, GD, etc.), be sure to add
them here. For the --with-apache string, put in the path to your
apache source directory, for example /src/apache_1.3.12.
5. Type make and make install. This will add a directory to your
Apache source directory under src/modules/php4.
6. Now, reconfigure Apache to build in PHP 4.
./configure --exec-prefix=/usr \
--localstatedir=/var \
--mandir=/usr/share/man \
--libexecdir=/System/Library/Apache/Modules \
--iconsdir=/System/Library/Apache/Icons \
--includedir=/System/Library/Frameworks/Apache.framework/Versions/1.3/Headers \
--enable-shared=max \
--enable-module=most \
--target=apache \
--activate-module=src/modules/php4/libphp4.a
You may get a message telling you that libmodphp4.a is out of date.
If so, go to the src/modules/php4 directory inside your Apache
source directory and run this command: ranlib libmodphp4.a. Then go
back to the root of the Apache source directory and run the above
configure command again. That'll bring the link table up to date.
Run make and make install again.
7. Copy and rename the php.ini-dist file to your bin directory from
your PHP 4 source directory: cp php.ini-dist /usr/local/bin/php.ini
or (if your don't have a local directory) cp php.ini-dist
/usr/bin/php.ini.
__________________________________________________________________
Compiling for MacOS X Client
The following instructions will help you install a PHP module for the
Apache web server included in MacOS X. This version includes support
for the MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. These instructions are
graciously provided by Marc Liyanage.
Warning
Be careful when you do this, you could screw up your Apache web server!
Do this to install:
1. Open a terminal window.
2. Type wget
http://www.diax.ch/users/liyanage/software/macosx/libphp4.so.gz,
wait for the download to finish.
3. Type gunzip libphp4.so.gz.
4. Type sudo apxs -i -a -n php4 libphp4.so
5. Now type sudo open -a TextEdit /etc/httpd/httpd.conf. TextEdit will
open with the web server configuration file. Locate these two lines
towards the end of the file: (Use the Find command)
#AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
#AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
Remove the two hash marks (#), then save the file and quit
TextEdit.
6. Finally, type sudo apachectl graceful to restart the web server.
PHP should now be up and running. You can test it by dropping a file
into your Sites folder which is called test.php. Into that file, write
this line: <?php phpinfo() ?>.
Now open up 127.0.0.1/~your_username/test.php in your web browser. You
should see a status table with information about the PHP module.
__________________________________________________________________
Chapter 4. Installation of PECL extensions
Introduction to PECL Installations
PECL is a repository of PHP extensions that are made available to you
via the PEAR packaging system. This section of the manual is intended
to demonstrate how to obtain and install PECL extensions.
These instructions assume /your/phpsrcdir/ is the path to the PHP
source distribution, and that extname is the name of the PECL
extension. Adjust accordingly. These instructions also assume a
familiarity with the pear command. The information in the PEAR manual
for the pear command also applies to the pecl command.
To be useful, a shared extension must be built, installed, and loaded.
The methods described below provide you with various instructions on
how to build and install the extensions, but they do not automatically
load them. Extensions can be loaded by adding an extension directive.
To this php.ini file, or through the use of the dl() function.
When building PHP modules, it's important to have known-good 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
The PECL web site contains information about the different
extensions that are offered by the PHP Development Team. The
information available here includes: ChangeLog, release notes,
requirements and other similar details.
* pecl download extname
PECL extensions that have releases listed on the PECL web site are
available for download and installation using the pecl command.
Specific revisions may also be specified.
* CVS
Most PECL extensions also reside in CVS. A web-based view may be
seen at http://cvs.php.net/pecl/. To download straight from CVS,
the following sequence of commands may be used. Note that 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, or by
retrieving a PECL Snapshot or an extension DLL on PECL4WIN. To
compile PHP under Windows, read the appropriate chapter.
__________________________________________________________________
PECL for Windows users
As with any other PHP extension DLL, installation is as simple as
copying the PECL extension DLLs into the extension_dir folder and
loading them from php.ini. For example, add the following line to your
php.ini:
extension=php_extname.dll
After doing this, restart the web server.
__________________________________________________________________
Compiling shared PECL extensions with the pecl command
PECL makes it easy to create shared PHP extensions. Using the pecl
command, do the following:
$ pecl install extname
This will download the source for extname, compile, and install
extname.so into your extension_dir. extname.so may then be loaded via
php.ini
By default, the pecl command will not install packages that are marked
with the alpha or beta state. If no stable packages are available, you
may install a beta package using the following command:
$ pecl install extname-beta
You may also install a specific version using this variant:
$ pecl install extname-0.1
__________________________________________________________________
Compiling shared PECL extensions with phpize
Sometimes, using the pecl installer is not an option. This could be
because you're behind a firewall, or it could be because the extension
you want to install is not available as a PECL compatible package, such
as unreleased extensions from CVS. If you need to build such an
extension, you can use the lower-level build tools to perform the build
manually.
The phpize command is used to prepare the build environment for a PHP
extension. In the following sample, the sources for an extension are in
a directory named extname:
$ cd extname
$ phpize
$ ./configure
$ make
# make install
A successful install will have created extname.so and put it into the
PHP extensions directory. You'll need to and adjust php.ini and add an
extension=extname.so line before you can use the extension.
If the system is missing the phpize command, and precompiled packages
(like RPM's) are used, be sure to also install the appropriate devel
version of the PHP package as they often include the phpize command
along with the appropriate header files to build PHP and its
extensions.
Execute phpize --help to display additional usage information.
__________________________________________________________________
Compiling PECL extensions statically into PHP
You might find that you need to build a PECL extension statically into
your PHP binary. To do this, you'll need to place the extension source
under the php-src/ext/ directory and tell the PHP build system to
regenerate its configure script.
$ cd /your/phpsrcdir/ext
$ pecl download extname
$ gzip -d < extname.tgz | tar -xvf -
$ mv extname-x.x.x extname
This will result in the following directory:
/your/phpsrcdir/ext/extname
From here, force PHP to rebuild the configure script, and then build
PHP as normal:
$ cd /your/phpsrcdir
$ rm configure
$ ./buildconf --force
$ ./configure --help
$ ./configure --with-extname --enable-someotherext --with-foobar
$ make
$ make install
Note: To run the 'buildconf' script you need autoconf 2.13 and
automake 1.4+ (newer versions of autoconf may work, but are not
supported).
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 5. 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 6. 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.
php.ini is searched in these locations (in order):
* SAPI module specific location (PHPIniDir directive in Apache 2, -c
command line option in CGI and CLI, php_ini parameter in NSAPI,
PHP_INI_PATH environment variable in THTTPD)
* The PHPRC environment variable. Before PHP 5.2.0 this was checked
after the registry key mentioned below.
* As of PHP 5.2.0, the following registry locations are searched in
order: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP\x.y.z\IniFilePath,
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP\x.y\IniFilePath and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP\x\IniFilePath, where x, y and z
mean the PHP major, minor and release versions.
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP\IniFilePath (Windows Registry
location)
* Current working directory (except CLI)
* The web server's directory (for SAPI modules), or directory of PHP
(otherwise in Windows)
* Windows directory (C:\windows or C:\winnt) (for Windows), or
--with-config-file-path compile time option
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. SAPI
name can be determined by php_sapi_name().
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 PHP
directives are documented in the manual though. For a complete 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 6-1. 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"
Since PHP 5.1.0, it is possible to refer to existing .ini variables
from within .ini files. Example: open_basedir = ${open_basedir}
":/new/dir".
__________________________________________________________________
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 6-2. 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().
__________________________________________________________________
Chapter 7. Installation FAQ
This section holds common questions about the way to install PHP. PHP
is available for almost any OS (except maybe for MacOS before OSX), and
almost any web server.
To install PHP, follow the instructions in Installing PHP.
1. Why shouldn't I use Apache2 with a threaded MPM in a production
environment?
2. Unix/Windows: Where should my php.ini file be located?
3. Unix: I installed PHP, but every time I load a document, I get the
message 'Document Contains No Data'! What's going on here?
4. Unix: I installed PHP using RPMS, but Apache isn't processing the
PHP pages! What's going on here?
5. Unix: I installed PHP 3 using RPMS, but it doesn't compile with the
database support I need! What's going on here?
6. Unix: I patched Apache with the FrontPage extensions patch, and
suddenly PHP stopped working. Is PHP incompatible with the
Apache FrontPage extensions?
7. Unix/Windows: I have installed PHP, but when I try to access a PHP
script file via my browser, I get a blank screen.
8. Unix/Windows: I have installed PHP, but when try to access a PHP
script file via my browser, I get a server 500 error.
9. Some operating systems: I have installed PHP without errors, but
when I try to start apache I get undefined symbol errors:
[mybox:user /src/php4] root# apachectl configtest
apachectl: /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd Undefined symbols:
_compress
_uncompress
10. Windows: I have installed PHP, but when I to access a PHP script
file via my browser, I get the error:
cgi error:
The specified CGI application misbehaved by not
returning a complete set of HTTP headers.
The headers it did return are:
11. Windows: I've followed all the instructions, but still can't get
PHP and IIS to work together!
12. When running PHP as CGI with IIS, PWS, OmniHTTPD or Xitami, I get
the following error: Security Alert! PHP CGI cannot be accessed
directly..
13. How do I know if my php.ini is being found and read? It seems like
it isn't as my changes aren't being implemented.
14. How do I add my PHP directory to the PATH on Windows?
15. How do I make the php.ini file available to PHP on windows?
16. Is it possible to use Apache content negotiation (MultiViews
option) with PHP?
17. Is PHP limited to process GET and POST request methods only?
1. Why shouldn't I use Apache2 with a threaded MPM in a production
environment?
PHP is glue. It is the glue used to build cool web applications by
sticking dozens of 3rd-party libraries together and making it all
appear as one coherent entity through an intuitive and easy to learn
language interface. The flexibility and power of PHP relies on the
stability and robustness of the underlying platform. It needs a working
OS, a working web server and working 3rd-party libraries to glue
together. When any of these stop working PHP needs ways to identify the
problems and fix them quickly. When you make the underlying framework
more complex by not having completely separate execution threads,
completely separate memory segments and a strong sandbox for each
request to play in, feet of clay are introduced into PHP's system.
If you feel you have to use a threaded MPM, look at a FastCGI
configuration where PHP is running in its own memory space.
And finally, this warning against using a threaded MPM is not as strong
for Windows systems because most libraries on that platform tend to be
threadsafe.
2. Unix/Windows: Where should my php.ini file be located?
By default on Unix it should be in /usr/local/lib which is
<install-path>/lib. Most people will want to change this at
compile-time with the --with-config-file-path flag. You would, for
example, set it with something like:
--with-config-file-path=/etc
And then you would copy php.ini-dist from the distribution to
/etc/php.ini and edit it to make any local changes you want.
--with-config-file-scan-dir=PATH
On Windows the default path for the php.ini file is the Windows
directory. If you're using the Apache webserver, php.ini is first
searched in the Apaches install directory, e.g. c:\program files\apache
group\apache. This way you can have different php.ini files for
different versions of Apache on the same machine.
See also the chapter about the configuration file.
3. Unix: I installed PHP, but every time I load a document, I get the
message 'Document Contains No Data'! What's going on here?
This probably means that PHP is having some sort of problem and is
core-dumping. Look in your server error log to see if this is the case,
and then try to reproduce the problem with a small test case. If you
know how to use 'gdb', it is very helpful when you can provide a
backtrace with your bug report to help the developers pinpoint the
problem. If you are using PHP as an Apache module try something like:
* Stop your httpd processes
* gdb httpd
* Stop your httpd processes
* > run -X -f /path/to/httpd.conf
* Then fetch the URL causing the problem with your browser
* > run -X -f /path/to/httpd.conf
* If you are getting a core dump, gdb should inform you of this now
* type: bt
* You should include your backtrace in your bug report. This should
be submitted to http://bugs.php.net/
If your script uses the regular expression functions (ereg() and
friends), you should make sure that you compiled PHP and Apache with
the same regular expression package. This should happen automatically
with PHP and Apache 1.3.x
4. Unix: I installed PHP using RPMS, but Apache isn't processing the
PHP pages! What's going on here?
Assuming you installed both Apache and PHP from RPM packages, you need
to uncomment or add some or all of the following lines in your
httpd.conf file:
# Extra Modules
AddModule mod_php.c
AddModule mod_php3.c
AddModule mod_perl.c
# Extra Modules
LoadModule php_module modules/mod_php.so
LoadModule php3_module modules/libphp3.so # for PHP 3
LoadModule php4_module modules/libphp4.so # for PHP 4
LoadModule perl_module modules/libperl.so
And add:
AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 # for PHP 3
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php # for PHP 4
... to the global properties, or to the properties of the VirtualDomain
you want to have PHP support added to.
5. Unix: I installed PHP 3 using RPMS, but it doesn't compile with the
database support I need! What's going on here?
Due to the way PHP 3 built, it is not easy to build a complete flexible
PHP RPM. This issue is addressed in PHP 4. For PHP 3, we currently
suggest you use the mechanism described in the INSTALL.REDHAT file in
the PHP distribution. If you insist on using an RPM version of PHP 3,
read on...
The RPM packagers are setting up the RPMS to install without database
support to simplify installations and because RPMS use /usr/ instead of
the standard /usr/local/ directory for files. You need to tell the RPM
spec file which databases to support and the location of the top-level
of your database server.
This example will explain the process of adding support for the popular
MySQL database server, using the mod installation for Apache.
Of course all of this information can be adjusted for any database
server that PHP supports. We will assume you installed MySQL and Apache
completely with RPMS for this example as well.
* First remove mod_php3 :
rpm -e mod_php3
* Then get the source rpm and INSTALL it, NOT --rebuild
rpm -Uvh mod_php3-3.0.5-2.src.rpm
* Then edit the /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/mod_php3.spec file
In the %build section add the database support you want, and the
path.
For MySQL you would add --with-mysql=/usr The %build section will
look something like this:
./configure --prefix=/usr \
--with-apxs=/usr/sbin/apxs \
--with-config-file-path=/usr/lib \
--enable-debug=no \
--enable-safe-mode \
--with-exec-dir=/usr/bin \
--with-mysql=/usr \
--with-system-regex
* Once this modification is made then build the binary rpm as
follows:
rpm -bb /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/mod_php3.spec
* Then install the rpm
rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/mod_php3-3.0.5-2.i386.rpm
Make sure you restart Apache, and you now have PHP 3 with MySQL support
using RPM's. Note that it is probably much easier to just build from
the distribution tarball of PHP 3 and follow the instructions in
INSTALL.REDHAT found in that distribution.
6. Unix: I patched Apache with the FrontPage extensions patch, and
suddenly PHP stopped working. Is PHP incompatible with the Apache
FrontPage extensions?
No, PHP works fine with the FrontPage extensions. The problem is that
the FrontPage patch modifies several Apache structures, that PHP relies
on. Recompiling PHP (using 'make clean ; make') after the FP patch is
applied would solve the problem.
7. Unix/Windows: I have installed PHP, but when I try to access a PHP
script file via my browser, I get a blank screen.
Do a 'view source' in the web browser and you will probably find that
you can see the source code of your PHP script. This means that the web
server did not send the script to PHP for interpretation. Something is
wrong with the server configuration - double check the server
configuration against the PHP installation instructions.
8. Unix/Windows: I have installed PHP, but when try to access a PHP
script file via my browser, I get a server 500 error.
Something went wrong when the server tried to run PHP. To get to see a
sensible error message, from the command line, change to the directory
containing the PHP executable (php.exe on Windows) and run php -i. If
PHP has any problems running, then a suitable error message will be
displayed which will give you a clue as to what needs to be done next.
If you get a screen full of HTML codes (the output of the phpinfo()
function) then PHP is working, and your problem may be related to your
server configuration which you should double check.
9. Some operating systems: I have installed PHP without errors, but
when I try to start apache I get undefined symbol errors:
[mybox:user /src/php4] root# apachectl configtest
apachectl: /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd Undefined symbols:
_compress
_uncompress
This has actually nothing to do with PHP, but with the MySQL client
libraries. Some need --with-zlib, others do not. This is also covered
in the MySQL FAQ.
10. Windows: I have installed PHP, but when I to access a PHP script
file via my browser, I get the error:
cgi error:
The specified CGI application misbehaved by not
returning a complete set of HTTP headers.
The headers it did return are:
This error message means that PHP failed to output anything at all. To
get to see a sensible error message, from the command line, change to
the directory containing the PHP executable (php.exe on Windows) and
run php -i. If PHP has any problems running, then a suitable error
message will be displayed which will give you a clue as to what needs
to be done next. If you get a screen full of HTML codes (the output of
the phpinfo() function) then PHP is working.
Once PHP is working at the command line, try accessing the script via
the browser again. If it still fails then it could be one of the
following:
* File permissions on your PHP script, php.exe, php4ts.dll, php.ini
or any PHP extensions you are trying to load are such that the
anonymous internet user ISUR_<machinename> cannot access them.
* The script file does not exist (or possibly isn't where you think
it is relative to your web root directory). Note that for IIS you
can trap this error by ticking the 'check file exists' box when
setting up the script mappings in the Internet Services Manager. If
a script file does not exist then the server will return a 404
error instead. There is also the additional benefit that IIS will
do any authentication required for you based on the NTLanMan
permissions on your script file.
11. Windows: I've followed all the instructions, but still can't get
PHP and IIS to work together!
Make sure any user who needs to run a PHP script has the rights to run
php.exe! IIS uses an anonymous user which is added at the time IIS is
installed. This user needs rights to php.exe. Also, any authenticated
user will also need rights to execute php.exe. And for IIS4 you need to
tell it that PHP is a script engine. Also, you will want to read this
faq.
12. When running PHP as CGI with IIS, PWS, OmniHTTPD or Xitami, I get
the following error: Security Alert! PHP CGI cannot be accessed
directly..
You must set the cgi.force_redirect directive to 0. It defaults to 1 so
be sure the directive isn't commented out (with a ;). Like all
directives, this is set in php.ini
Because the default is 1, it's critical that you're 100% sure that the
correct php.ini file is being read. Read this faq for details.
13. How do I know if my php.ini is being found and read? It seems like
it isn't as my changes aren't being implemented.
To be sure your php.ini is being read by PHP, make a call to phpinfo()
and near the top will be a listing called Configuration File (php.ini).
This will tell you where PHP is looking for php.ini and whether or not
it's being read. If just a directory PATH exists than it's not being
read and you should put your php.ini in that directory. If php.ini is
included within the PATH than it is being read.
If php.ini is being read and you're running PHP as a module, then be
sure to restart your web server after making changes to php.ini
14. How do I add my PHP directory to the PATH on Windows?
On Windows NT, 2000, XP and 2003:
* Go to Control Panel and open the System icon (Start -> Settings ->
Control Panel -> System, or just Start -> Control Panel -> System
for Windows XP/2003)
* Go to the Advanced tab
* Click on the 'Environment Variables' button
* Look into the 'System Variables' pane
* Find the Path entry (you may need to scroll to find it)
* Double click on the Path entry
* Enter your PHP directory at the end, including ';' before (e.g.
;C:\php)
* Press OK and restart your computer
On Windows 98/Me you need to edit the autoexec.bat file:
* Open the Notepad (Start -> Run and enter notepad)
* Open the C:\autoexec.bat file
* Locate the line with PATH=C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;..... and
add: ;C:\php to the end of the line
* Save the file and restart your computer
Note: Be sure to reboot after following the steps above to ensure
that the PATH changes are applied.
The PHP manual used to promote the copying of files into the Windows
system directory, this is because this directory (C:\Windows, C:\WINNT,
etc.) is by default in the systems PATH. Copying files into the Windows
system directory has long since been deprecated and may cause problems.
15. How do I make the php.ini file available to PHP on windows?
There are several ways of doing this. If you are using Apache, read
their installation specific instructions (Apache 1, Apache 2),
otherwise you must set the PHPRC environment variable:
On Windows NT, 2000, XP and 2003:
* Go to Control Panel and open the System icon (Start -> Settings ->
Control Panel -> System, or just Start -> Control Panel -> System
for Windows XP/2003)
* Go to the Advanced tab
* Click on the 'Environment Variables' button
* Look into the 'System variables' pane
* Click on 'New' and enter 'PHPRC' as the variable name and the
directory where php.ini is located as the variable value (e.g.
C:\php)
* Press OK and restart your computer
On Windows 98/Me you need to edit the autoexec.bat file:
* Open the Notepad (Start -> Run and enter notepad)
* Open the C:\autoexec.bat file
* Add a new line to the end of the file: set PHPRC=C:\php (replace
C:\php with the directory where php.ini is located). Please note
that the path cannot contain spaces. For instance, if you have
installed PHP in C:\Program Files\PHP, you would enter
C:\PROGRA~1\PHP instead.
* Save the file and restart your computer
16. Is it possible to use Apache content negotiation (MultiViews
option) with PHP?
If links to PHP files include extension, everything works perfect. This
FAQ is only for the case when links to PHP files don't include
extension and you want to use content negotiation to choose PHP files
from URL with no extension. In this case, replace the line AddType
application/x-httpd-php .php with:
# PHP 4
AddHandler php-script php
AddType text/html php
# PHP 5
AddHandler php5-script php
AddType text/html php
This solution doesn't work for Apache 1 as PHP module doesn't catch
php-script.
17. Is PHP limited to process GET and POST request methods only?
No, it is possible to handle any request method, e.g. CONNECT. Proper
response status can be sent with header(). If only GET and POST methods
should be handled, it can be achieved with this Apache configuration:
<LimitExcept GET POST>
Deny from all
</LimitExcept>