#43 Update Quick Start (to use VHOST'ed install)

[Anonymous]

In section 1.3 of the documentation it says: VERY
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a quick installation guide to
get you started if you have an installation where you
control the web server, PHP interpreter and database
server completely. They are not suitable for a web
hosting setup where you have only limited to no
control over the installation.

The fact is that if you're using apache, you can
use .htaccess to change practically all settings of
the php.ini file:

#not php.ini, but you can set php extensions
AddType application/x-httpd-php .phtml .php .inc .ihtml

#PHP Options (only examples)
php_value auto_prepend_file local.inc
php_value
include_path .:/usr/local/lib/php:/home/user/www/phplib
php_flag asp_tags On

So as long as you have access to everything else, this
isn't a problem.

[nathan hruby]

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phplib is easier to install if you have root.

I'm not seeing the bug, do you want the docs changed to
reflect .htaccess instructions or would like the design
changed to make something about installation easier?

Making this a docs bug...

[Layne Weathers]

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FWIW, I'd like to see the prefered installation in the
documentation be a virtual hosting environment. Each
site/project has its own copy of prepend.inc and local.inc in a
non-servable user-specified location (personally I
use /var/www/projectname/includes where web accessible
files are in /var/www/projectname/docs).

[Dr Tarique Sani]

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What is the bug?

The document clearly states that see the next chapter for more
information!

Should QuickStart section be changed to show the usage of .htaccess
only - this sounds logical as most people use it in vhost env

[nathan hruby]

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Then I think the bug is: Quick Start Shoud detail a VHost'ed
install.

I agree with this sentiment. Tarique & Layne, would confer
to rewrite the Quick Start to reflect these changes please?

Changing Bug Summary to reflect finalized bug

[Richard Archer]

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Here are my comments posted to the -core list about this issue:

I've never used the auto_prepend_file in the php3.ini way of
installing PHPLIB. I always use the $_PHPLIB["libdir"] =
"/path/to/phplib/" method.

A couple of reasons for this:

- I don't want 60 kB of code auto-prepended to all scripts,
most of
which aren't PHPLIB scripts and don't need the namespace
pollution.

- Different sites (virtual hosting environment) require
different
configurations in prepend.php3 (i.e. sess only, sess+auth).

- Different sites may want to run different versions of PHPLIB,
either choosing their own upgrade path or (god forbid) running
hacked versions of PHPLIB.

- On my first installation (PHPLIB-6.1, early 1999) I found the
documentation horribly confusing and set it up the easiest
way.

Even now I know all about the package and how to configure
it with auto_prepend_file, I still prefer the $_PHPLIB option.

The $_PHPLIB method always works, while the auto_... method
is only applicable under certain circumstances which are
valid on the NetUSE chroot'd server farm and on corporate
servers where there is only one site running on the server.

I'd like to re-write the installation section of the manual
to make the $_PHPLIB["libdir"] the preferred installation
method and to refer to the auto_prepend_file way as an
alternative. Or maybe drop it all together.

[Dr Tarique Sani]

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OK! if someone would please send the rewritten thing in plain
text then I promise to XMLise, regenerate, and update the site
within 24 hours :)