PHP - htaccess - output_buffering

Question

I have the following code in an htaccess file in my application root to turn output buffering on.

php_value output_buffering On
php_value output_handler mb_output_handler

On some servers it causes a 500 internal error, on others it works fine. Does anyone know why it sometimes causes an error. Is there a different way to do this?

Thank you!

Bursarial

Are those servers that return errors running a PHP version prior to 4.0.4? – Interlink

No, they are all 5.2 or above. – Quintonquintuple

Hey i was facing redirect issues i just add the above 2 line in .htaccess file and added ob_start() and flush() methods in my file Its works like a charm thanks :) – Bradley

Answer 1

You can use this syntax only if PHP is running as an Apache module.

The 500 errors probably come up on servers where this is not the case.

For total certainty, look into the server's error.log file for a detailed error message.

Nernst

Even if we take that the server does not run PHP as Apache module, Why would it throw a 500 error? Isn't the contents of the .htaccess file merely ignored? – Neel

@Neel no, Apache always throws a 500 error when it encounters an unknown command. – Nernst

Answer 2

Those directives work only if PHP is installed as a module. On other servers it will result in 500, since they will be invalid directives

Jill

Even if we take that the server does not run PHP as Apache module, Why would it throw a 500 error? Isn't the contents of the .htaccess file merely ignored? – Neel

No, contents are evaluated as directives, and if PHP module is not there, Apache would not know how to interpret "php_value" directive, so it will fail with 500 – Jill

Answer 3

Not sure, but i think the error is caused by the first line.

Use php_flag for On/Off True/False switches, like this:

php_flag output_buffering On

Teena