Howto: php.ini, and register_globals

[GatorEricS]

If you have SSH access (which can be requested), you can use the following command from shell:

phpiniuser='USERNAME' && cat /usr/local/lib/php.ini | replace 'register_globals = On' 'register_globals = Off' > /home/$phpiniuser/php.ini && chown $phpiniuser. /home/$phpiniuser/php.ini

Simply change the word USERNAME to be your account username (i.e. phpiniuser='gwyneth' (if I may borrow her as example)). This will automatically copy the server's php.ini file, as well as change register_globals to off, and place it in your home directory, owned by you.

You can then add the following code to your .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_suphp.c>
 suPHP_ConfigPath /home/USERNAME
 <Files php.ini>
   order allow,deny
   deny from all
 </Files>
</IfModule>

Again, where USERNAME is your username (aka: suPHP_ConfigPath /home/gwyneth).

Whenever someone requests a custom php.ini file through a support ticket, I have a hotcommand that fires a similar line that copies the file, chowns it, and auto-creates a .htaccess file in the /home/username. Since .htaccess interits by parent, then anything in /home/username/.htaccess will apply to all directories, thus the php.ini will apply. The FULL line I use to do all of this is:

phpiniuser='USERNAME' && cat /usr/local/lib/php.ini | replace 'register_globals = On' 'register_globals = Off' > /home/$phpiniuser/php.ini && chown $phpiniuser. /home/$phpiniuser/php.ini && echo "######################################################" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo "# Custom php.ini setup added by support, do not edit #" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo "######################################################" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo "<IfModule mod_suphp.c>" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo " suPHP_ConfigPath /home/$phpiniuser" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo " <Files php.ini>" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo "   order allow,deny" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo "   deny from all" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo " </Files>" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo "</IfModule>" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && echo "### RESUME EDITING BELOW #############################" >> /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess && chown $phpiniuser. /home/$phpiniuser/.htaccess

Hope this helps you folks. Dedi users will find the last line especially useful, as it's an all-in-one command for deployment (can only be applied to another account if you are the root user).

Regards,
-Eric

[softwarecandy]

Great post. It saved me life.

One slight improvement for the shared hosting account owner: The one line script you provided in the first quote is good for someone who does that for a different account (i.e. administrator/root). For someone who does it for his own account only, one could eliminate the $phpiniuser and use the always present $USER environment variable instead:

cat /usr/local/lib/php.ini | replace 'register_globals = On' 'register_globals = Off' > /home/$USER/php.ini

Also, since the owner of the account creates the php.ini file, the chown trailer can be eliminated, too. This simplifies it for us a little bit.

[gwyneth]

Originally Posted by softwarecandy

One slight improvement for the shared hosting account owner: The one line script you provided in the first quote

GatorThomas may have edited out something more relevant than he thought...

[digitaltoast]

Originally Posted by GatorEricS

You can then add the following code to your .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_suphp.c>
 suPHP_ConfigPath /home/USERNAME
 <Files php.ini>
   order allow,deny
   deny from all
 </Files>
</IfModule>

Again, where USERNAME is your username (aka: suPHP_ConfigPath /home/gwyneth).

Hi Eric,

Great tip, saves me having thousands of php.ini files.

However, after struggling with several scripts for a couple of nights, I realised that although it was released in July, HG has not updated to php 5.3.

No matter, the answer is here and provides an easy method of enabling php5.3 which is great.

The simple answer is, put these two lines at the top of your .htaccess
Action application/x-hg-php53 /cgi-sys/php53
AddType application/x-hg-php53 .php

However, the .htaccess trick stops working if you do this. You need to remove the
<IfModule mod_suphp.c>
so now it looks like:
suPHP_ConfigPath /home/xxx
<Files php.ini>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

Then it will work.

Also, remember you will need to grab a new php.ini to customize, so where the script on this page refers to
/usr/local/lib/php.ini

you need to change it to
/opt/php53/lib/php.ini

so if you're using ssh, it would be (when in your home root folder)
cp /opt/php53/lib/php.ini ./