Get php ini location

This article will help you to find php.ini file location. php.in file is very useful file to coustomize the PHP behaviour at runtime and it is also a configuration file. Using this you can easily administrator Apache web server. You can set the parameters like uploading director, register global variable, disable errors and many more. If you want to make a quick adjustment to php.in file but you are not sure where it is?

In this article we will learn how to find and edit the php.ini file using command line. If you want to edit php.ini file in Cpanel  follow this tutorial edit php.ini file in Cpanel.

Find php.ini File Location

First of all find the php.ini file location using command line in linux.

1. Login to your server via ssh.
2. Now check the installed php version using below command.

$ php --version

PHP 7.4.6 (cli) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.4.6, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Let’s find the php.ini file using below command.

# php -i | grep php.ini

You will some output like below:

Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc
Loaded Configuration File => /etc/php.ini

Now you found your php.ini file located in /etc/ directory.

Get PHP information using CLI

To get the php information you can also use CLI . Type “-i” follow by php command. For example:

# php -I
# php -i | more
# php -i | grep pdo

You can also heck the php loaded module with above but you can also I check the php module using creating php.info file.

FAQs

Where can I find php.ini file?

php.in file is very useful file to coustomize the PHP behaviour at runtime and it is default  configuration file for php application. You can set the parameters like uploading director, register global variable, disable errors and many more. So run the ” php -i | grep php.ini” to find the php.ini file location.

How do I open php.ini file?

To open php.ini file you can use any txt editor like, vim, vi, nano etc. example: vim /etc/php.ini.

How do I reload php.ini file after updating?

Reload the apache service simply running, systemctl httpd reload.

How do I open php.ini file in Linux terminal?

To open php.ini file in Linux terminal and just use vim or vi command. For example : vim /etc/php.ini.

In this tutorial, we’re going to discuss php.ini—the main configuration file in PHP. From the beginner’s perspective, we’ll discuss what it’s meant for, where to locate it, and a couple of important configuration settings it provides.

What Is php.ini?

Whether you’re a PHP beginner or a seasoned developer, I’m sure that you’ve heard of php.ini: the most important PHP configuration file. 

When PHP is run, it looks for the php.ini file in some specific locations and loads it. This file allows you to configure a few important settings that you should be aware of. Quite often, you’ll find you need to tweak settings in the php.ini file.

On the other hand, it’s certainly possible that you've never needed to modify php.ini. PHP can run happily with the settings provided in the default php.ini file, since PHP ships with these default recommended settings. In fact, there are no critical configuration parameters that you must set in order to run PHP. 

However, the php.ini file provides a couple of important settings that you want to make yourself familiar with. In fact, as a PHP developer, it’s inevitable, and you’ll encounter it sooner rather than later.

Where Is php.ini?

In this section, we’ll see how to find the php.ini file which is loaded when you run the PHP script. This can be tricky—the location of the php.ini file vastly varies by the environment you’re running PHP with. If you’re running Windows, you'll likely find the php.ini file within the directory of your PHP installation in the system drive. On the other hand, if you’re running another operating system, then it’s difficult to guess the exact location of the php.ini file—there are several possibilities.

This is where the phpinfo() function comes to the rescue. It will tell you where php.ini is located, and it will also output all the important PHP configuration information. 

You can run phpinfo() by creating a .php file and calling that function. Go ahead and create the phpinfo.php file with the following contents and place it in your document root:

1

<?php

2

phpinfo();

3

?>

Load this file in your browser, and you should see the output of phpinfo(). Look for the following section.

As you can see, there are two sections. The first one, Configuration File (php.ini) Path, indicates the default path of the php.ini file in your system. And the second one, Loaded Configuration File, is the path from where the php.ini file is being loaded when PHP is run.

So you can edit the php.ini file indicated in the Loaded Configuration File section, and that should work in most cases. Of course, if you’re running PHP as an Apache module, you need to restart the Apache server to make sure that the changes you’ve made in the php.ini file are reflected.

On the other hand, if you’re using software like WAMP or XAMPP to run your web development stack, it’s even easier to modify the php.ini file—you can directly access it via the WAMP or XAMPP UI.

In the next section, we’ll explore a couple of important settings in the php.ini file.

Important Settings in php.ini

The php.ini file provides a lot of configuration directives that allow you to modify various behaviors of PHP. In fact, when you open the php.ini file, you may get overwhelmed by the number of directives it provides. I'll try to group them based on their behavior, and I hope it’ll be easy for you to understand.

Of course, we won’t go through each and every directive, but I’ll try to cover the most important ones. Let’s have a look at the types of directives that we’re going to discuss.

• error handling directives
• file upload directives
• security related directives
• session directives
• miscellaneous directives

Error Handling Directives

In this section, we’ll go through directives that are related to error handling and are useful for debugging during development.

display_errors

The display_errors directive allows you to control whether errors are displayed on the screen during script execution. You can set it to

<?php

<?php

<?php

3

This directive allows you to set the error reporting level. Mostly, this directive works in conjunction with the display_errors directive. This directive can accept

<?php

<?php

<?php

<?php

You can set it to

<?php

2

2

1

On a production website, you need to make sure that PHP doesn’t display any errors to the client browser. Instead, you can log errors somewhere so that later on you can refer to them if something goes wrong with your site. The

2

File Upload Directives

In this section, we’ll see a couple of important directives that allow you to enable file uploading capabilities in your PHP forms.

2

3

This is a boolean directive which allows you to enable HTTP file uploads. If you set it to

<?php

<?php

2

6

If you have enabled the file upload feature on your website and you’re facing difficulties in uploading files, this is the directive you should check first. It allows you to set the maximum size of a file that can be uploaded.

By default, it’s set to 2MB, and thus users can’t upload files larger than 2MB. You can fine-tune this value as per your requirements—often you'll want to increase this limit to allow larger file uploads.

2

7

This setting allows you to set the maximum size of the POST data in your forms. When a user submits a form with the POST method, the total POST data size should not exceed the value you’ve set in this directive.

This should be larger than the value you’ve set in the

2

Security Directives

In this section, we’ll see a few important directives that are related to security.

2

9

The

2

phpinfo();

1

The

phpinfo();

2

phpinfo();

phpinfo();

phpinfo();

phpinfo();

phpinfo();

If you want to enable this directive, you need to make sure that you’ve enabled the

2

Session Directives

Session management is one of the most important aspects when you’re working with PHP. In this section, we’ll go through a couple of important session directives.

3

0

The

3

3

3

3

If you set the value of the

3

3

3

3

7

The

3

Miscellaneous Directives

In this last section, we’ll see a couple of other directives that are important in the context of PHP script execution.

3

9

The

3

You want to fine-tune this directive as per your requirements, and you should not set this too high to avoid memory outages on your server—poorly written or buggy scripts can eat up all the memory on your server if you let them!

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1

The

?>

Similar to the

3

?>

4

The

?>

If you have forms on your website that submit a large amount of data, you might like to increase the value of this directive.

Conclusion

It's impossible to cover each and every directive within a single article, but I’ve tried to cover the important ones. Feel free to post your queries if you want to know about any specific directives, and I’ll be happy to help!

As a PHP developer, it’s important that you understand the different directives in the php.ini file, and that should help you to fine-tune your PHP configuration to your requirements.

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How do I find the PHP ini file path?

Where is my PHP ini file in Windows?

Where is the PHP ini file in Linux?

How do I know which PHP ini file is used?