CXXIV. PHP Options&Information

Introduction

This functions enable you to get a lot of information about PHP itself, e.g. runtime configuration, loaded extensions, version and much more. You'll also find functions to set options for your running PHP. The probably best known function of PHP - phpinfo() - can be found here.

Requirements

No external libraries are needed to build this extension.

Installation

There is no installation needed to use these functions; they are part of the PHP core.

Runtime Configuration

The behaviour of these functions is affected by settings in php.ini.

Table 1. PHP Options/Inf Configuration Options

Name	Default	Changeable	Changelog
assert.active	"1"	PHP_INI_ALL
assert.bail	"0"	PHP_INI_ALL
assert.warning	"1"	PHP_INI_ALL
assert.callback	NULL	PHP_INI_ALL
assert.quiet_eval	"0"	PHP_INI_ALL
enable_dl	"1"	PHP_INI_SYSTEM
max_execution_time	"30"	PHP_INI_ALL
max_input_time	"-1"	PHP_INI_PERDIR	Available since PHP 4.3.0.
max_input_nesting_level	"64"	PHP_INI_SYSTEM\|PHP_INI_PERDIR	Available since PHP 5.2.2 and 4.4.8. Note that the default value in PHP 4.4.x is 500.
magic_quotes_gpc	"1"	PHP_INI_PERDIR	PHP_INI_ALL in PHP <= 4.2.3.
magic_quotes_runtime	"0"	PHP_INI_ALL

For further details and definitions of the PHP_INI_* constants, see the Appendix I.

Here's a short explanation of the configuration directives.

assert.active boolean

Enable assert() evaluation.

assert.bail boolean

Terminate script execution on failed assertions.

assert.warning boolean

Issue a PHP warning for each failed assertion.

assert.callback string

user function to call on failed assertions

assert.quiet_eval boolean

Use the current setting of error_reporting() during assertion expression evaluation. If enabled, no errors are shown (implicit error_reporting(0)) while evaluation. If disabled, errors are shown according to the settings of error_reporting()

enable_dl boolean

This directive is really only useful in the Apache module version of PHP. You can turn dynamic loading of PHP extensions with dl() on and off per virtual server or per directory.

The main reason for turning dynamic loading off is security. With dynamic loading, it's possible to ignore all open_basedir restrictions. The default is to allow dynamic loading, except when using safe mode. In safe mode, it's always impossible to use dl().

max_execution_time integer

This sets the maximum time in seconds a script is allowed to run before it is terminated by the parser. This helps prevent poorly written scripts from tying up the server. The default setting is 30.

The maximum execution time is not affected by system calls, stream operations etc. Please see the set_time_limit() function for more details.

You can not change this setting with ini_set() when running in safe mode. The only workaround is to turn off safe mode or by changing the time limit in the php.ini.

Your web server can have other timeouts. E.g. Apache has Timeout directive, IIS has CGI timeout function, both default to 300 seconds. See the web server documentation for meaning of it.

max_input_time integer

This sets the maximum time in seconds a script is allowed to parse input data, like POST, GET and file uploads.

max_input_nesting_level integer

Sets the max nesting dept of input variables (i.e. $_GET, $_POST..)

magic_quotes_gpc boolean

Sets the magic_quotes state for GPC (Get/Post/Cookie) operations. When magic_quotes are on, all ' (single-quote), " (double quote), \ (backslash) and NUL's are escaped with a backslash automatically.

Note: If the magic_quotes_sybase directive is also ON it will completely override magic_quotes_gpc. Having both directives enabled means only single quotes are escaped as ''. Double quotes, backslashes and NUL's will remain untouched and unescaped.

Resource Types

This extension has no resource types defined.

Predefined Constants

The constants below are always available as part of the PHP core.

Table 2. Pre-defined phpcredits() constants

Constant	Value	Description
CREDITS_GROUP	1	A list of the core developers
CREDITS_GENERAL	2	General credits: Language design and concept, PHP authors and SAPI module.
CREDITS_SAPI	4	A list of the server API modules for PHP, and their authors.
CREDITS_MODULES	8	A list of the extension modules for PHP, and their authors.
CREDITS_DOCS	16	The credits for the documentation team.
CREDITS_FULLPAGE	32	Usually used in combination with the other flags. Indicates that a complete stand-alone HTML page needs to be printed including the information indicated by the other flags.
CREDITS_QA	64	The credits for the quality assurance team.
CREDITS_ALL	-1	All the credits, equivalent to using: CREDITS_DOCS + CREDITS_GENERAL + CREDITS_GROUP + CREDITS_MODULES + CREDITS_QA CREDITS_FULLPAGE. It generates a complete stand-alone HTML page with the appropriate tags. This is the default value.

Table 3. phpinfo() constants

Constant	Value	Description
INFO_GENERAL	1	The configuration line, `php.ini` location, build date, Web Server, System and more.
INFO_CREDITS	2	PHP Credits. See also phpcredits().
INFO_CONFIGURATION	4	Current Local and Master values for PHP directives. See also ini_get().
INFO_MODULES	8	Loaded modules and their respective settings.
INFO_ENVIRONMENT	16	Environment Variable information that's also available in `$_ENV`.
INFO_VARIABLES	32	Shows all predefined variables from EGPCS (Environment, GET, POST, Cookie, Server).
INFO_LICENSE	64	PHP License information. See also the license faq.
INFO_ALL	-1	Shows all of the above. This is the default value.

ASSERT_ACTIVE (integer)
ASSERT_CALLBACK (integer)
ASSERT_BAIL (integer)
ASSERT_WARNING (integer)
ASSERT_QUIET_EVAL (integer)

Table of Contents
assert_options -- Set/get the various assert flags
assert -- Checks if assertion is FALSE
dl -- Loads a PHP extension at runtime
extension_loaded -- Find out whether an extension is loaded
get_cfg_var -- Gets the value of a PHP configuration option
get_current_user -- Gets the name of the owner of the current PHP script
get_defined_constants -- Returns an associative array with the names of all the constants and their values
get_extension_funcs -- Returns an array with the names of the functions of a module
get_include_path -- Gets the current include_path configuration option
get_included_files -- Returns an array with the names of included or required files
get_loaded_extensions -- Returns an array with the names of all modules compiled and loaded
get_magic_quotes_gpc -- Gets the current configuration setting of magic quotes gpc
get_magic_quotes_runtime -- Gets the current active configuration setting of magic_quotes_runtime
get_required_files -- Alias of get_included_files()
getenv -- Gets the value of an environment variable
getlastmod -- Gets time of last page modification
getmygid -- Get PHP script owner's GID
getmyinode -- Gets the inode of the current script
getmypid -- Gets PHP's process ID
getmyuid -- Gets PHP script owner's UID
getopt -- Gets options from the command line argument list
getrusage -- Gets the current resource usages
ini_alter -- Alias of ini_set()
ini_get_all -- Gets all configuration options
ini_get -- Gets the value of a configuration option
ini_restore -- Restores the value of a configuration option
ini_set -- Sets the value of a configuration option
main -- Dummy for main()
memory_get_peak_usage -- Returns the peak of memory allocated by PHP
memory_get_usage -- Returns the amount of memory allocated to PHP
php_ini_scanned_files -- Return a list of .ini files parsed from the additional ini dir
php_logo_guid -- Gets the logo guid
php_sapi_name -- Returns the type of interface between web server and PHP
php_uname -- Returns information about the operating system PHP is running on
phpcredits -- Prints out the credits for PHP
phpinfo -- Outputs lots of PHP information
phpversion -- Gets the current PHP version
putenv -- Sets the value of an environment variable
restore_include_path -- Restores the value of the include_path configuration option
set_include_path -- Sets the include_path configuration option
set_magic_quotes_runtime -- Sets the current active configuration setting of magic_quotes_runtime
set_time_limit -- Limits the maximum execution time
sys_get_temp_dir -- Returns directory path used for temporary files
version_compare -- Compares two "PHP-standardized" version number strings
zend_logo_guid -- Gets the Zend guid
zend_version -- Gets the version of the current Zend engine