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Date: Thu, 04 Apr 2013 18:40:11 +0100
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: Adding a way to retreive compile options at runtime
From: krakjoe@php.net (Joe Watkins)

On 04/04/2013 06:30 PM, Johannes Schlüter wrote:
>
>
> Joe Watkins <krakjoe@php.net> wrote:
>
>> Many extensions do not provide constants or functions to detect the way
>> they are configured, this may or may not expose those options, which is
>> better than not being able to expose those options by any reasonable
>> means.
>
> Then those extensions should expose the required information. These are bugs then.
>
>> More importantly, it does not only contain information about
>> extensions,
>> or which extensions are loaded and how ( I am aware of the problems of
>> using this kind of information as authoritative, I still say something
>> is better than nothing, see every 404 page in all modern browsers, why
>> not provide suggestions, even if they are wrong ).
>>
>> Path information I figure could be useful while setting up software, so
>
> The paths set during configure time don't have to match those where things are installed. Especially admins might prefer to use symlinked paths for configuration and users might be misled.
>
>> could many other configure time options, for example if more than one
>> SAPI was built at configure time, you might advise the use of the most
>> suitable SAPI for your software,
>
> SAPIs might be built individually. Having them enabled during configure time doesn't mean they are enabled or accessible by the user.
>
>> you might generate an ini file and
>> tell
>> the user where to put it (scandir), you might have the abnormal path to
>> php-config or other things distributed with php and installed in a
>> non-standard path (/opt/php-nts in example output).
>
> configure options often won't tell-
>
>> There's a bunch of useful stuff in the configure command ... not just
>> extensions loaded ...
>
> Yes and a lot of wrong information.
>
> johannes
>

A combination of ENV, ini, phpversion and phpconfopt options should 
allow you to make much more informed decisions or do nothing at all, 
there is not a reasonable means to acquire this information, nor is it 
reasonable to suggest that we modify every single bundled extension in 
order to expose their configuration options, additional constants and 
maybe add new functions/methods.

I keep using the words could, might, maybe, *on purpose*, I am aware 
that the configuration time options may not match runtime parameters, I 
don't think it falls to us to provide the business logic, so it doesn't 
really matter that the setup may be completely different, it may be the 
same, or similar. It may be vital information, it may also be completely 
irrelevant, exposing it provides more flexibility than doing nothing at all.

Joe