Installing PHP _________________________________________________________________ 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 commandline setups HP-UX specific installation notes OpenBSD installation notes Solaris specific installation tips Gentoo installation notes Debian GNU/Linux installation notes 3. Installation on Mac OS X Using Packages 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 PEAR 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 _________________________________________________________________ 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 _________________________________________________________________ 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 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 webserver. 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 commandline 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. _________________________________________________________________ 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 dir 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 webpage 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. _________________________________________________________________ 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. _________________________________________________________________ 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 PHP4.so. Also make sure that caudium/server/lib/[pike-version]/PHP4.so 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. _________________________________________________________________ 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. _________________________________________________________________ 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 webservers 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 webservers, 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 webserver. 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="/o pt/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 webserver config directory. 3. Configure the default object in obj.conf (for virtual server classes [version 6.0+] in their vserver.obj.conf): . . . .#NOTE this next line should happen after all 'ObjectType' and before all 'AddL og' 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" 4. This is only needed if you want to configure a directory that only consists of PHP scripts (same like a cgi-bin directory): ObjectType fn="force-type" type="magnus-internal/x-httpd-php" Service fn=php4_execute [inikey=value inikey=value ...] 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: AuthTrans fn=php4_auth_trans . . . 6. To use PHP Authentication on a single directory, add the following: AuthTrans fn=php4_auth_trans 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. 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 commandline setups The default is to build PHP as a CGI program. This creates a commandline 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. (Contributed by paul_mckay at clearwater-it dot co dot uk). Note: These tips were written for PHP 4.0.4 and Apache 1.3.9. 1. You need gzip, download a binary distribution from http://hpux.connect.org.uk/ftp/hpux/Gnu/gzip-1.2.4a/gzip-1.2.4a-sd -10.20.depot.Z uncompress the file and install using swinstall. 2. You need gcc, download a binary distribution from http://gatekeep.cs.utah.edu/ftp/hpux/Gnu/gcc-2.95.2/gcc-2.95.2-sd- 10.20.depot.gz. uncompress this file and install gcc using swinstall. 3. You need the GNU binutils, you can download a binary distribution from http://hpux.connect.org.uk/ftp/hpux/Gnu/binutils-2.9.1/binutils-2. 9.1-sd-10.20.depot.gz. uncompress this file and install binutils using swinstall. 4. You now need bison, you can download a binary distribution from http://hpux.connect.org.uk/ftp/hpux/Gnu/bison-1.28/bison-1.28-sd-1 0.20.depot.gz, install as above. 5. You now need flex, you need to download the source from one of the http://www.gnu.org mirrors. It is in the non-gnu directory of the ftp site. Download the file, gunzip, then tar -xvf it. Go into the newly created flex directory and run ./configure, followed by make, and then make install. If you have errors here, it's probably because gcc etc. are not in your PATH so add them to your PATH. 6. Download the PHP and apache sources. 7. gunzip and tar -xvf them. We need to hack a couple of files so that they can compile OK. 8. Firstly the configure file needs to be hacked because it seems to lose track of the fact that you are a hpux machine, there will be a better way of doing this but a cheap and cheerful hack is to put lt_target=hpux10.20 on line 47286 of the configure script. 9. Next, the Apache GuessOS file needs to be hacked. Under apache_1.3.9/src/helpers change line 89 from echo "hp${HPUXMACH}-hpux${HPUXVER}"; exit 0 to: echo "hp${HPUXMACH}-hp-hpux${HPUXVER}"; exit 0 10. You cannot install PHP as a shared object under HP-UX so you must compile it as a static, just follow the instructions at the Apache page. 11. PHP and Apache should have compiled OK, but Apache won't start. you need to create a new user for Apache, e.g. www, or apache. You then change lines 252 and 253 of the conf/httpd.conf in Apache so that instead of User nobody Group nogroup you have something like User www Group sys This is because you can't run Apache as nobody under hp-ux. Apache and PHP should then work. _________________________________________________________________ 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. _________________________________________________________________ Gentoo installation notes This section contains notes and hints specific to installing PHP on Gentoo Linux. _________________________________________________________________ Using Portage (emerge) While you can just download the PHP source and compile it yourself, using Gentoo'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. If you have built your Gentoo system so far, you are probably used to Portage already. Installing Apache and PHP is no different than the other system tools. The first decision you need to make is whether you want to install Apache 1.3.x or Apache 2.x. While both can be used with PHP, the steps given below will use Apache 1.3.x. Another thing to consider is whether your local Portage tree is up to date. If you have not updated it recently, you need to run emerge sync before anything else. This way, you will be using the most recent stable version of Apache and PHP. Now that everything is in place, you can use the following example to install Apache and PHP: Example 2-7. Gentoo Install Example with Apache 1.3 # emerge \/mod_php-.ebuild config # nano /etc/conf.d/apache Add "-D PHP4" to APACHE_OPTS # rc-update add apache default # /etc/init.d/apache start You can read more about emerge in the excellent Portage Manual provided on the Gentoo website. If you need to use Apache 2, you can simply use emerge apache in the last example. _________________________________________________________________ Better control on configuration In the last section, PHP was emerged without any activated modules. As of this writing, the only module activated by default with Portage is XML which is needed by PEAR. This may not be what you want and you will soon discover that you need more activated modules, like MySQL, gettext, GD, etc. When you compile PHP from source yourself, you need to activate modules via the configure command. With Gentoo, you can simply provide USE flags which will be passed to the configure script automatically. To see which USE flags to use with emerge, you can try: Example 2-8. Getting the list of valid USE flags # USE="-*" emerge -pv php [ebuild N ] dev-php/php-4.3.6-r1 -X -berkdb -crypt -curl -debug -doc -fdftk -firebird -flash -freetds -gd -gd-external -gdbm -gmp -hardenedphp -imap -informix -ipv6 -java -jpeg -kerberos -ldap -mcal -memlimit -mssql -mysql -ncurses -nls -oci8 -odbc -pam -pdflib -png -postgres -qt -readline -snmp -spell -ssl -tiff -truetype -xml2 -yaz 3,876 kB As you can see from the last output, PHP considers a lot of USE flags. Look at them closely and choose what you need. If you choose a flag and you do not have the proper libraries, Portage will compile them for you. It is a good idea to use emerge -pv again to see what Portage will compile in accordance to your USE flags. As an example, if you do not have X installed and you choose to include X in the USE flags, Portage will compile X prior to PHP, which can take a couple of hours. If you choose to compile PHP with MySQL, cURL and GD support, the command will look something like this: Example 2-9. Install PHP with USE flags # USE="-* curl mysql gd" emerge php mod_php As in the last example, do not forget to emerge php as well as mod_php. php is responsible for the command line version of PHP as mod_php is for the Apache module version of PHP. _________________________________________________________________ Common Problems * If you see the PHP source instead of the result the script should produce, you have probably forgot to edit /etc/conf.d/apache. Apache needs to be started with the -D PHP4 flag. To see if the flag is present, you should be able to see it when using ps ax | grep apache while Apache is running. * Due to slotting problems, you might end up with more than one version of PHP installed on your system. If this is the case, you need to unmerge the old versions manually by using emerge unmerge mod_php-. * If you cannot emerge PHP because of Java, try putting -* in front of your USE flags like in the above examples. * If you are having problems configuring Apache and PHP, you can always search the Gentoo Forums. Try searching with the keywords "Apache PHP". _________________________________________________________________ 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 2-10. 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 2-11. 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 2-12. 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 2-13. 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 2-14. 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 2-15. 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 2-16. 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. _________________________________________________________________ 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: . 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. 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. * pear download extname PECL extensions that have releases listed on the PECL web site are available for download and installation using the pear 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, and by retrieving a PECL Snapshot. To compile PHP under Windows, read the Win32 Build README. _________________________________________________________________ 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 PEAR PEAR makes it easy to create shared PHP extensions. Using the pear command, do the following: $ pear 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 pear 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: $ pear install extname-beta You may also install a specific version using this variant: $ pear install extname-0.1 _________________________________________________________________ Compiling shared PECL extensions with phpize Sometimes, using the pear 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 PEAR 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. _________________________________________________________________ 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 $ pear 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) * HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP\IniFilePath (Windows Registry location) * The PHPRC environment variable * Current working directory (for 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 php_value include_path ".:/usr/local/lib/php" php_admin_flag safe_mode on php_value include_path ".:/usr/local/lib/php" php_admin_flag safe_mode on php3_include_path ".:/usr/local/lib/php" php3_safe_mode on 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 the INSTALL file located in the distribution. Windows users should also read the install.txt file. There are also some helpful hints for Windows users here. 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 /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_ 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 ant 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: Deny from all