PHP Manual: Runtime Configuration

Runtime Configuration

The behaviour of the Apache PHP module is affected by settings in php.ini. Configuration settings from php.ini may be overridden by php_flag settings in the server configuration file or local .htaccess files.

Example #1 Turning off PHP parsing for a directory using .htaccess

php_flag engine off

**Apache configuration options**
Name	Default	Changeable	Changelog
engine	"1"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.0.5.
child_terminate	"0"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.0.5.
last_modified	"0"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.0.5.
xbithack	"0"	PHP_INI_ALL	Available since PHP 4.0.5.

For further details and definitions of the PHP_INI_* modes, see the Where a configuration setting may be set.

Here's a short explanation of the configuration directives.

engine boolean: Turns PHP parsing on or off. This directive is really only useful in the Apache module version of PHP. It is used by sites that would like to turn PHP parsing on and off on a per-directory or per-virtual server basis. By putting engine off in the appropriate places in the httpd.conf file, PHP can be enabled or disabled.
child_terminate boolean: Specify whether PHP scripts may request child process termination on end of request, see also apache_child_terminate.
last_modified boolean: Send PHP scripts modification date as Last-Modified: header for this request.
xbithack boolean: Parse files with executable bit set as PHP regardless of their file ending.