PHP5 (v. 5.2.5 ) - "php.ini" File Observation

mike-h30 wrote on Monday, June 09, 2008:

I upgraded my test box (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 - SP1) from PHP5 5.1.2 to PHP5 5.2.5 and was unable to log into OpenEMR-2.8.3 afterwards.  I received the following error:

Check that you can ping the server ‘’.

ERROR: Could not connect to server!

Error: Access denied for user ‘wwwrun’@‘localhost’ (using password: NO)

I fixed this by setting "short_open_tag" to "On" in the php.ini file.  I was puzzled as I did not remember having to do this when I first installed OpenEMR-2.8.3.  After some digging around, I noticed that in the php.ini file of PHP5 5.1.2, the variable "short_open_tag" is set to "On" by default.  In PHP5 5.2.5, "short_open_tag" is set to "Off" by default.  I am not sure why PHP5 5.2.5 sets "short_open_tag" to "Off" by default.

*** PHP5 5.1.2 ******
; Allow the <? tag.  Otherwise, only <?php and <script> tags are recognized.
; NOTE: Using short tags should be avoided when developing applications or
; libraries that are meant for redistribution, or deployment on PHP
; servers which are not under your control, because short tags may not
; be supported on the target server. For portable, redistributable code,
; be sure not to use short tags.
; short_open_tag = Off
short_open_tag = On

*** PHP5 5.2.5 ********
; Allow the <? tag.  Otherwise, only <?php and <script> tags are recognized.
; NOTE: Using short tags should be avoided when developing applications or
; libraries that are meant for redistribution, or deployment on PHP
; servers which are not under your control, because short tags may not
; be supported on the target server. For portable, redistributable code,
; be sure not to use short tags.
short_open_tag = Off

cfapress wrote on Tuesday, June 10, 2008:

We’re trying to eliminate all short tags in OpenEMR. Much work has been done in the development code but the current production software is riddled with them. Hopefully the next release will be fixed so that ‘short_open_tag=Off’ is an OK parameter to have in php.ini.

Jason

mike-h30 wrote on Tuesday, June 10, 2008:

Thanks for the update Jason!