PHP 7.0 short_open_tag won't enable when changed in php.ini. Required to setup software I want to use.

Posted on September 6, 2016

I’m trying to setup a web application that requires short_open_tag to be enabled in order to continue through the install wizard. I have set it to

short_open_tag=On

in php.ini, but it still shows off in phpinfo, adn the software wizard also sees it as disabled. I’m using PHP 7.0 and Apache2.

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KFSys

June 12, 2023

Pinned Answer

Heya,

In cases like this, usually there are a couple of stuff to check.

It seems like the changes to your php.ini file are not being recognized. Here are a few steps to troubleshoot this issue:

Check if you are editing the correct php.ini file: You might have multiple php.ini files on your system. To make sure you are editing the correct one, create a simple PHP script with <?php phpinfo(); ?>, run it in your browser and look for “Loaded Configuration File”. This is the php.ini file that is being used. Make sure to edit this file.
Check for syntax errors: Make sure that the line you added doesn’t have any syntax errors and isn’t conflicting with any other lines. If there is a short_open_tag entry already, it might be overriding your entry. Also, ensure the line is not commented out (should not have a semi-colon ; at the beginning).
Restart the Apache service: After making changes to the php.ini file, you need to restart the Apache service for the changes to take effect. You can do this by running sudo systemctl restart apache2 or sudo service apache2 restart, depending on your system.

tblhosting

September 10, 2016

In your home directory, create a file called info.php.

In that file, put in the following: <?php phpinfo(); ?>

Then run it in your browser, look for “Loaded Configuration File”. It should give you a path like /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini. That’s the file you need to edit. Then restart apache.