The configuration file

The configuration file (called php3.ini in PHP 3, and simply php.ini as of PHP 4) is read when PHP starts up. For the server module versions of PHP, this happens only once when the web server is started. For the CGI and CLI version, it happens on every invocation.

The default location of php.ini is a compile time option (see the FAQ entry), but can be changed for the CGI and CLI version with the -c command line switch, see the chapter about using PHP from the command line. You can also use the environment variable PHPRC for an additional path to search for a php.ini file.

If php-SAPI.ini exists (where SAPI is used SAPI, so the filename is e.g. php-cli.ini or php-apache.ini), it's used instead of php.ini.

The php.ini directives handled by extensions are documented respectively on the pages of the extensions themselves. The list of the core directives is available in the appendix. Probably not all the PHP directives are documented in the manual though. For a completel list of directives available in your PHP version, please read your well commented php.ini file. Alternatively, you may find the the latest php.ini from CVS helpful too.

; 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"