phpinfo.php is not showing extra folder for additional PHP configuration files

Question

My phpinfo.php is not showing extra folder for additional PHP configuration files. I am running Apache v2.4.4(with PHP DSO) and PHP v5.4.14 on CentOS v6.3 32-bit. Apache and PHP installations are compiled from source.

I have not used the configure option --with-config-file-scan-dir=PATH for PHP. (And won't be using because I will be needing more than one folder).

Environment variable PHPRC and Apache Directive PHPIniDir are related to the main PHP file, which leaves me with the Environment variable PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR to work with. Below are the steps what I did:

STEP 1 of 2 - Settings for PHP

PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR being an OS Environment variable is required to be set before Apache starts. So I added the following entry to my /etc/profile.d/php.sh file.

PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR="/usr/local/lib/php/custom"
export PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR

Then rebooted the system.

Now the commands env | grep PHP, php -i | grep INI and php --ini give me the following outputs.

=> # env | grep PHP

PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR=/usr/local/lib/php/custom

=> # php -i | grep INI

PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR => /usr/local/lib/php/custom
_SERVER["PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR"] => /usr/local/lib/php/custom

=> # php --ini

Configuration File (php.ini) Path: /usr/local/lib
Loaded Configuration File:         /usr/local/lib/php.ini
Scan for additional .ini files in: /usr/local/lib/php/custom
Additional .ini files parsed:      (none)

STEP 2 of 2 - Settings for Apache

First Attempt

===================

Added the following entry in both apache2/bin/envvars & apache2/bin/envvars-std files.

(Any comments on what is the difference between envvars & envvars-std file?)

PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR="/usr/local/lib/php/custom"
export PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR

Restarted Apache service.
But the value for Scan this dir for additional .ini files from phpinfo.php file shows empty.

Second Attempt

===================

So I removed the entries from envvars & envvars-std. I have module mod_env loaded by default. I added the following in httpd.conf.

SetEnv PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR "/usr/local/lib/php/custom"

Restarted Apache service.
Value for Scan this dir for additional .ini files from phpinfo.php file still shows empty.

Third Attempt

===================

Again, I removed the entries from httpd.conf. Added the same line to Directory section of my VirtualHost in httpd-vhosts.conf.

SetEnv PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR "/usr/local/lib/php/custom"

Restarted Apache service.
Value for Scan this dir for additional .ini files from phpinfo.php file still shows empty.

ANSWERS ON SOME OF YOUR THOUGHTS:

• Yes, my phpinfo.php file is made of only phpinfo(). It is not a static file.

• Yes, the browser cache was cleaned. I also tried another browser.

Finally

So, can anyone tell me why my phpinfo file is not showing the extra folder for additional PHP configuration files?

Answer 1

You have to start apache with that environment variable set. Setting the variable in /etc/profile.d/php.sh only sets it for the PHP executable itself, which is not used by mod_php5.

I just went through this rigamarole. Setting the variable with SetEnv won't work, either, as it's defined after mod_php5 is loaded.

In CentOS 6.5, I found that editing /etc/sysconfig/httpd allows you to set and export additional environment variables for the apache process itself. So try adding it there:

export PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR="/usr/local/lib/php/custom"