Now that you have PHP and your web server up and running, you will probably want to configure PHP to your liking. All of PHP's settings are available in its php.ini file, which, if you followed these installation instructions, is available either in /usr/local/lib/php (Unix) or c:\windows\php.ini (Windows). Open this in your text editor of choice (you will need to be root on Unix).
Table 2-2. Configuration options for PHP
Option | Meaning | Default |
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assert.active | Enables the assert( ) function | On |
display_errors | Sets whether PHP should output error messages to the screen | Off |
error_reporting | Decides what types of errors PHP should notify you of | E_ALL |
expose_php | Allows PHP to identify itself to clients through the web server | On |
extension | Loads a PHP extension | N/A |
extension_dir | Sets the directory where PHP should look for extensions | ./ |
file_uploads | Decides whether PHP should accept users uploading files | On |
log_errors | Determines whether PHP should store error messages in a log file | On |
magic_quotes_gpc | Determines whether PHP should automatically run form data through addslashes( ) before you get it | Off |
max_execution_time | Determines how long a script may run for before timing out | 30 seconds |
mbstring.func_overload | Converts non-multibyte string functions to their multibyte equivalents | 0 |
memory_limit | Sets the maximum amount of RAM a PHP script may consume | 8M |
precision | Determines number of decimal places for floating-point numbers | 14 |
register_globals | Decides whether all superglobal arrays should have their elements exported to the global scope | Off |
safe_mode | Enables high security mode for shared server environments | Off |
session.save_path | Selects the directory in which session data will be stored | /tmp |
short_open_tags | Enables <? for opening PHP code blocks | On |
SMTP | Sets the mail server address for the mail( ) function. | |
variables_order | Determines the order in which variables are parsed: G is GET, P is POST, C is cookie, and S is session | GPCS |