How can I find the php.ini file used by the command line?

Question

I need to enable pdo_mysql in my EasyPHP environment, so I went to the php.ini file and uncommented the following line:

extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll

Unfortunately I still have the same problem. I'm using the CLI so I suppose I need to locate the php.ini file used by the CLI. How can I find it?

Compulsory

Also see https://mcmap.net/q/47710/-where-can-i-find-php-ini/632951 – Rudich

@sjas It is not the wrong, it is correct and let you know the path of the loaded php.ini in the cli. – Kubiak

EasyPHP (probably) implies Windows. Perhaps tag it as such? – Simsar

Some context: "The root cause of the problem is that in EasyPHP 5.3 there isn't any php.ini file in the php folder. – Simsar

Answer 1

Just run php --ini and look for Loaded Configuration File in the output for the location of php.ini used by your CLI.

Kimble

@BradFJacobs why use grep when this is now cross-platform? – Drury

But doesn't this just show you the one that is loaded when using PHP via the CLI (because you are running the command from that). – Flaxen

@AntonyD'Andrea: which is exactly what the question is about. See? It does state so even in the title: How to find the php.ini file used by the command line? – Kimble

this is not my answer...in my case I type sudo find / -iname php.ini and it founds /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini the right place of the right php.ini config file of my machine that it wasn't found by php --ini or php -i | grep php.ini (both found /etc/php/7.0/cli/php.ini) – Adachi

@Adachi if your cli php uses Apache's php.ini something is wrong with your setup – Kimble

maybe it's because I've recently upgrade PHP to 7 from 5.5.9 ...where should I check my setup? Everything works as usual – Adachi

...also check this out askubuntu.com/a/356990/413592 I don't think there's something wrong with my setup – Adachi

That answer says the same as me. There's a separate php.ini for CLI and a separate one for Apache. – Kimble

A million files are displayed, would be nice to add a sentence fragment explaining which one is the CLI one. – Nevil

@Mchl: I have shamelessly edited your answer to include the informative not to look for Loaded Configuration File in output :) – Sinusoidal

@Fr0zenFyr: thank you. It's been so long time ago sine I worked with PHP I don't even recall if the output from php --ini was always this way, or it has changed since my answer. – Kimble

It is empty in my case. Please can you advise. # php --ini Configuration File (php.ini) Path: /usr/local/etc/php Loaded Configuration File: (none) Scan for additional .ini files in: /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d Additional .ini files parsed: /usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/docker-php-ext-sodium.ini – Jarlath

@DulithaKumarasiri just create your own php.ini file, if you really need to change any setting. What happened is that your Docker container is merely using the reasonable defaults set by the PHP core developer team; you'd only need to create a php.ini if and only if you need to change a setting. – Moorer

this only shows the location of the cli's php.ini file. the apach2 php.ini file is what most people usually look for and its location is ../apache2/php.ini relatively – Bursary

Thank you for this comment @Meilech. If you read the question though it specifically asks about CLI's php.ini. – Kimble

Answer 2

You can get a full phpinfo() using:

php -i

And, in there, there is the php.ini file used:

$ php -i | grep 'Configuration File'
Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc
Loaded Configuration File => /etc/php.ini

On Windows, use find instead:

php -i | find/i"configuration file"

Eugeniusz

I did that but the weird thing is that it's pointing me the C:\WINDOWS path. And I didn't find it there? – Compulsory

The name of the file is still: php.ini right? Or something starting with php at least? – Compulsory

Then this php instance used no php.ini at all but the default values. The Configuration File line of phpinfo() shows the last place where php looked for an ini file. That can either be the place where it found such a file or the last option which happens to be %SYSTEMROOT% on windows. – Glaucoma

@pascal: php -i | find "Configuration file" should work on Windows. Definitely not as powerful as grep, but find will do basic string searching for you. Of course, if php -i dumps its output to stderr, you're probably SOL. – Kirkland

find is case-sensitive by default, so it has to be perfect (php -i | find "Configuration File") or made case-insensitive (php -i | find /i "Configuration file" - note the /i flag). – Fr

@deizel: thanks for the tip, you were right, it only works with the /i switch or you have to type in the exact string - and thanks for Marc B too for mentioning find. I edited the original post according to your comments. – Giuseppinagiustina

Consider adding php --ini as an alternative; available since PHP 5.2.3 :) – Graphite

PHP looks for config in 7 places as outlined here: php.net/manual/en/configuration.file.php. If you are getting a pointer to C:\Windows with php --ini, do this to fix it: click my computer->system properties->advanced system settings->environment variables->new...(system variable). Name the key: PHPRC and set the value to the full path to your php.ini file. Open a new console and enter php --ini again. Your config should be loaded. – Factual

Nobody mentioned, that it's possible to take that value from script by calling php_ini_loaded_file and when needed php_ini_scanned_files – Procrastinate

Just another side note: grep is available on windows: i.imgur.com/KP5MJRV.png – Pantomime

Works flawlessly for me. If the default "Configuration File" was not changed, you shouldn't worry about case-sensitivity. php --ini is a nice alternative for PHP 5.2.3+ versions. – Sixgun

Please notice that this could be very misleading if you have both php-cli install and another php which interacts with the webserver. Just running php -i from the command-line will most probably return the php.ini for the php-cli and not the one for the webserver. – Calumny

On OSX Mavericks, running: $ php -i | grep 'Configuration File' Returned: Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc Loaded Configuration File: (none) In the /etc/ directory was: php.ini.default (as well as php-fpm.conf.default) I was able to copy php.ini.default to php.ini, add date.timezone = "US/Central" to the top (right below [php]), and the problem is solved. At least the error message is gone. – Marinetti

In what environment on Windows? WAMP? Can you add something about this to your answer? (But without "Edit:", "Update:", or similar - the answer should appear as if it was written today). – Simsar

Sample output on Ubuntu MATE 20.04 (Focal Fossa) and a LAMP equivalent (Apache, MariaDB, and PHP) - PHP 7.4.3: /etc/php/7.4/cli/php.ini – Simsar

Answer 3

You can use get_cfg_var('cfg_file_path') for that:

To check whether the system is using a configuration file, try retrieving the value of the cfg_file_path configuration setting. If this is available, a configuration file is being used.

Unlike phpinfo() it will tell if it didn't find/use a php.ini at all.

var_dump( get_cfg_var('cfg_file_path') );

And you can simply set the location of the php.ini. You're using the command line version, so using the -c parameter you can specify the location for this particular run, e.g.

php -c /home/me/php.ini -f /home/me/test.php

Glaucoma

Is it a permanent change or not? Can you be explicit about this in your answer? – Simsar

Answer 4

Run php --ini in your terminal, and you'll get all details about ini files:

Configuration File (php.ini) Path: /etc
Loaded Configuration File:         /etc/php.ini
Scan for additional .ini files in: /etc/php.d
Additional .ini files parsed:      /etc/php.d/apc.ini,
/etc/php.d/bcmath.ini,
/etc/php.d/curl.ini,
/etc/php.d/dba.ini,
/etc/php.d/dom.ini,
/etc/php.d/fileinfo.ini,
/etc/php.d/gd.ini,
/etc/php.d/imap.ini,
/etc/php.d/json.ini,
/etc/php.d/mbstring.ini,
/etc/php.d/memcache.ini,
/etc/php.d/mysql.ini,
/etc/php.d/mysqli.ini,
/etc/php.d/pdo.ini,
/etc/php.d/pdo_mysql.ini,
/etc/php.d/pdo_sqlite.ini,
/etc/php.d/phar.ini,
/etc/php.d/posix.ini,
/etc/php.d/sqlite3.ini,
/etc/php.d/ssh2.ini,
/etc/php.d/sysvmsg.ini,
/etc/php.d/sysvsem.ini,
/etc/php.d/sysvshm.ini,
/etc/php.d/wddx.ini,
/etc/php.d/xmlreader.ini,
/etc/php.d/xmlwriter.ini,
/etc/php.d/xsl.ini,
/etc/php.d/zip.ini

For more, use helping command php --help. It'll display all the possible options.

Vernettaverneuil

Answer 5

Sometimes things aren't always as they seem when in comes to configuration files in general. So here I'm applying my usual methods for exploring what files are opened by a process.

I use a very powerful and useful command-line program called strace to show me what's really going on behind my back!

$ strace -o strace.log php --version
$ grep php.ini strace.log

Strace digs out kernel (system) calls that your program makes and dumps the output into the file specified by -o.

It's easy to use grep to search for occurrences of file php.ini in this log. It's pretty obvious looking at the following typical response to see what is going on.

open("/usr/bin/php.ini", O_RDONLY)      = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/etc/php.ini", O_RDONLY)          = 3
lstat("/etc/php.ini", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=69105, ...}) = 0

Irrevocable

php -i gave me incorrect results, but this one is perfectly fine. Thank you! – Empty

Answer 6

If you want all the configuration files loaded, this is will tell you:

php -i | grep "\.ini"

Some systems load things from more than one ini file. On my Ubuntu system, it looks like this:

php -i | grep "\.ini"

Output

Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc/php5/cli
Loaded Configuration File => /etc/php5/cli/php.ini
Scan this dir for additional .ini files => /etc/php5/cli/conf.d
additional .ini files parsed => /etc/php5/cli/conf.d/apc.ini,
/etc/php5/cli/conf.d/curl.ini,
/etc/php5/cli/conf.d/gd.ini,
/etc/php5/cli/conf.d/mcrypt.ini,
/etc/php5/cli/conf.d/memcache.ini,
/etc/php5/cli/conf.d/mysql.ini,
/etc/php5/cli/conf.d/mysqli.ini,
/etc/php5/cli/conf.d/pdo.ini,
/etc/php5/cli/conf.d/pdo_mysql.ini

Aprilaprile

Answer 7

If you need to pass it to another app, you can do something like:

php --ini | grep Loaded | cut -d" " -f12

returns the path only. php -c $(php --ini | grep Loaded | cut -d" " -f12) will pass in the config file (useful for fpm)

Octahedrite

Answer 8

On OS X v10.9 (Mavericks), running:

$ php -i | grep 'Configuration File'

Returned:

Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc
Loaded Configuration File:         (none)

In the /etc/ directory was:

php.ini.default

(as well as php-fpm.conf.default)

I was able to copy php.ini.default to php.ini, add date.timezone = "US/Central" to the top (right below [php]), and the problem is solved.

(At least the error message is gone.)

Marinetti

Indeed, macOS (and OSX before it) never ships a php.ini file and relies on the PHP developers to have made sensible default choices (which is usually the case). But if you need to change any setting, you have to do exactly what you've described. This actually saves a lot of time, since most users will never need to 'fix' their php.ini files... – Moorer

Answer 9

The easiest way nowadays is to use PHP configure:

php-config --ini-dir

Output:

/usr/local/etc/php/7.4/conf.d

---

There's more you can find there. The --help sub command (macOS local install):

php-config --help

Output:

Usage: /usr/local/bin/php-config [OPTION]
Options:
  --prefixUsage: /usr/local/bin/php-config [OPTION]
Options:
  --prefix            [/usr/local/Cellar/php/7.4.11]
  --includes          [-I/usr/local/Cellar/php/7.4.11/include/php - …ETC…]
  --ldflags           [ -L/usr/local/Cellar/krb5/1.18.2/lib -…ETC…]
  --libs              [ -ltidy -largon2 …ETC… ]
  --extension-dir     [/usr/local/Cellar/php/7.4.11/pecl/20190902]
  --include-dir       [/usr/local/Cellar/php/7.4.11/include/php]
  --man-dir           [/usr/local/Cellar/php/7.4.11/share/man]
  --php-binary        [/usr/local/Cellar/php/7.4.11/bin/php]
  --php-sapis         [ apache2handler cli fpm phpdbg cgi]
  --ini-path          [/usr/local/etc/php/7.4]
  --ini-dir           [/usr/local/etc/php/7.4/conf.d]
  --configure-options [--prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/php/7.4.11 --…ETC…]
  --version           [7.4.11]
  --vernum            [70411]

Anandrous

Does that work for EasyPHP? It is Windows-specific. – Simsar

@PeterMortensen I have no idea what EasyPHP is. The php-config command is distro and PHP version specific.+ – Anandrous

Answer 10

Try this if it could help you all:

find / -type f -name "php.ini" 

This will output all files named php.ini.

Find out which one you're using, usually apache2/php.ini

Calx

This does not work if there is no php.ini file (some docker containers). Therefor the accepted answer is better suited. – Epigeal

No. apache2/php.ini is usually not used by CLI – Anjaanjali

Answer 11

From what I remember when I used to use EasyPHP, the php.ini file is either in C:\Windows\ or C:\Windows\System32

Richma

Right it's telling me C:\WINDOWS. But I didn't find it there seriously! – Compulsory

Answer 12

Since PHP uses different php.ini paths for HTTP(S) and CLI (console command line) mode, easiest way is to find out really loaded php.ini file is by saving phpinfo() output into local file:

php -i >> phpinfo-cli.txt

Open saved file & find row Loaded Configuration File. It will contain path to actually loaded php.ini file e.g.:

Loaded Configuration File => D:\wamp\bin\php\php7.4.1\php.ini

The above assumes that PHP is properly installed, e.g. on Windows included in PATH env. variable.

Rockribbed

How does that answer the question? Can you elaborate? Please respond by editing (changing) your answer, not here in comments (without "Edit:", "Update:", or similar - the answer should appear as if it was written today). – Simsar

@PeterMortensen Sorry, I thought it was obvious. Answer updated. – Rockribbed

Answer 13

On Linux it is usually under /usr/bin/php

To find php.ini loaded in CLI on widows, run:

php.exe -i | grep "php.ini"

Ps. You can localize PHP installation folder with:

which php

or

whereis php

/c/laragon/bin/php/php-7.4.19-Win32-vc15-x64/php

Braunite

Answer 14

In a Docker container, "phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin". there isn't any php.ini file. But there are two files: php.ini-debug and php.ini-production.

To solve the problem, simply rename one of the files to php.ini and restart the Docker container.

Alwyn

Do you have a reference for that Docker container/image, "phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin"? – Simsar

Answer 15

There is no php.ini used by the command line. You have to copy the file from ...EasyPHP-<<version>>\apache\php.ini to ...EasyPHP-<<version>>\php\php.ini and then edit the one in the php directory.

Reference:

• Why can't CakePHP bake connect to MySQL running under EasyPHP on Windows Vista Ultimate?

Autochthon

It would be better to quote the source: "The root cause of the problem is that in EasyPHP 5.3 there isn't any php.ini file in the php folder." – Simsar