This section holds common questions about the way to install PHP. PHP is available for almost any OS (except maybe for MacOS before OSX), and almost any web server.
To install PHP, follow the instructions in the INSTALL file located in the distribution. Windows users should also read the install.txt file. There are also some helpful hints for Windows users here.
cgi error:
The specified CGI application misbehaved by not
returning a complete set of HTTP headers.
The headers it did return are:
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By default on UNIX it should be in /usr/local/lib. Most people will want to change this at compile-time with the --with-config-file-path flag. You would, for example, set it with something like:
--with-config-file-path=/etc
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On Windows the default path for the php.ini file is the Windows directory.
2. Unix: I installed PHP, but every time I load a document, I get the message 'Document Contains No Data'! What's going on here?
This probably means that PHP is having some sort of problem and is core-dumping. Look in your server error log to see if this is the case, and then try to reproduce the problem with a small test case. If you know how to use 'gdb', it is very helpful when you can provide a backtrace with your bug report to help the developers pinpoint the problem. If you are using PHP as an Apache module try something like:
Stop your httpd processes
gdb httpd
Stop your httpd processes
> run -X -f /path/to/httpd.conf
Then fetch the URL causing the problem with your browser
> run -X -f /path/to/httpd.conf
If you are getting a core dump, gdb should inform you of this now
type: bt
You should include your backtrace in your bug report. This should be submitted to http://bugs.php.net/
If your script uses the regular expression functions (ereg() and friends), you should make sure that you compiled PHP and Apache with the same regular expression package. This should happen automatically with PHP and Apache 1.3.x
3. Unix: I installed PHP using RPMS, but Apache isn't processing the PHP pages! What's going on here?
Assuming you installed both Apache and PHP from RPM packages, you need to uncomment or add some or all of the following lines in your http.conf file:
# Extra Modules
AddModule mod_php.c
AddModule mod_php3.c
AddModule mod_perl.c
# Extra Modules
LoadModule php_module modules/mod_php.so
LoadModule php3_module modules/libphp3.so /* for PHP 3 */
LoadModule php4_module modules/libphp4.so /* for PHP 4 */
LoadModule perl_module modules/libperl.so
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AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 /* for PHP 3 */
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php /* for PHP 4 */
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4. Unix: I installed PHP 3 using RPMS, but it doesn't compile with the database support I need! What's going on here?
Due to the way PHP 3 built, it is not easy to build a complete flexible PHP RPM. This issue is addressed in PHP 4. For PHP 3, we currently suggest you use the mechanism described in the INSTALL.REDHAT file in the PHP distribution. If you insist on using an RPM version of PHP 3, read on...
The RPM packagers are setting up the RPMS to install without database support to simplify installations and because RPMS use /usr/ instead of the standard /usr/local/ directory for files. You need to tell the RPM spec file which databases to support and the location of the top-level of your database server.
This example will explain the process of adding support for the popular MySQL database server, using the mod installation for Apache.
Of course all of this information can be adjusted for any database server that PHP supports. We will assume you installed MySQL and Apache completely with RPMS for this example as well.
First remove mod_php3 :
rpm -e mod_php3
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Then get the source rpm and INSTALL it, NOT --rebuild
rpm -Uvh mod_php3-3.0.5-2.src.rpm
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Then edit the /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/mod_php3.spec file
In the %build section add the database support you want, and the path.
For MySQL you would add
--with-mysql=/usr \
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./configure --prefix=/usr \
--with-apxs=/usr/sbin/apxs \
--with-config-file-path=/usr/lib \
--enable-debug=no \
--enable-safe-mode \
--with-exec-dir=/usr/bin \
--with-mysql=/usr \
--with-system-regex
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Once this modification is made then build the binary rpm as follows:
rpm -bb /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/mod_php3.spec
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Then install the rpm
rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/mod_php3-3.0.5-2.i386.rpm
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5. Unix: I patched Apache with the FrontPage extensions patch, and suddenly PHP stopped working. Is PHP incompatible with the Apache FrontPage extensions?
No, PHP works fine with the FrontPage extensions. The problem is that the FrontPage patch modifies several Apache structures, that PHP relies on. Recompiling PHP (using 'make clean ; make') after the FP patch is applied would solve the problem.
6. Unix/Windows: I have installed PHP, but when I try to access a PHP script file via my browser, I get a blank screen.
Do a 'view source' in the web browser and you will probably find that you can see the source code of your PHP script. This means that the web server did not send the script to PHP for interpretation. Something is wrong with the server configuration - double check the server configuration against the PHP installation instructions.
7. Unix/Windows: I have installed PHP, but when try to access a PHP script file via my browser, I get a server 500 error.
Something went wrong when the server tried to run PHP. To get to see a sensible error message, from the command line, change to the directory containing the PHP executable (php.exe on Windows) and run php -i. If PHP has any problems running, then a suitable error message will be displayed which will give you a clue as to what needs to be done next. If you get a screen full of html codes (the output of the phpinfo() function) then PHP is working, and your problem may be related to your server configuration which you should double check.
8. Windows: I have installed PHP, but when I to access a PHP script file via my browser, I get the error:
cgi error:
The specified CGI application misbehaved by not
returning a complete set of HTTP headers.
The headers it did return are:
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This error message means that PHP failed to output anything at all. To get to see a sensible error message, from the command line, change to the directory containing the PHP executable (php.exe on Windows) and run php -i. If PHP has any problems running, then a suitable error message will be displayed which will give you a clue as to what needs to be done next. If you get a screen full of html codes (the output of the phpinfo() function) then PHP is working.
Once PHP is working at the command line, try accessing the script via the browser again. If it still fails then it could be one of the following:
File permissions on your PHP script, php.exe, php4ts.dll, php.ini or any PHP extensions you are trying to load are such that the anonymous internet user ISUR_<machinename> cannot access them.
The script file does not exist (or possibly isn't where you think it is relative to your web root directory). Note that for IIS you can trap this error by ticking the 'check file exists' box when setting up the script mappings in the Internet Services Manager. If a script file does not exist then the server will return a 404 error instead. There is also the additional benefit that IIS will do any authentication required for you based on the NTLanMan permissions on your script file.
Make sure any user who needs to run a PHP script has the rights to run php.exe! IIS uses an anonymous user which is added at the time IIS is installed. This user needs rights to php.exe. Also, any authenticated user will also need rights to execute php.exe. And for IIS4 you need to tell it that PHP is a script engine.