PHP 8.5: CLI: php --ini=diff to output non-default INI directives

Version8.5
TypeNew Feature

The PHP CLI executable in PHP 8.5 supports a new php --ini=diff command-line flag, which lists INI directives that differ from the built-in default values.

This provides a quick way to identify changed INI values, and can be especially useful in error reports that should contain the potential INI settings that might caused the issue.

PHP continues to support the php --ini CLI option, which lists information about the loaded INI files.

Calling php --help shows the help text for the new feature:

php --help
 Usage: php [options] [-f] <file> [--] [args...]
    php [options] -r <code> [--] [args...]

  ...

   --ini            Show configuration file names
+  --ini=diff       Show INI entries that differ from the built-in default

 ...

New php --ini=diff CLI flag

Calling PHP 8.5 and later php executable with --ini=diff option prints all INI directives that are different from the built-in default values.

php --ini=diff
Non-default INI settings:
html_errors: "1" -> "0"
implicit_flush: "0" -> "1"
max_execution_time: "30" -> "0"

Note that there is no option to fetch these entries in a machine-friendly format as this is meant to be mostly troubleshooting purposes.

Using --ini=diff with other configuration options

PHP CLI offers a few CLI options to fine-tune PHP INI directives.

  • php -n: No configuration (ini) files will be used
  • php -c example.ini: Look for a php.ini in the given directory or use the specified INI files.
  • php -d foo=bar: Directly set configuration options.

The new --ini=diff option works well with all of the INI-related CLI options above.

For example, if the date.timezone INI directive is passed using the -d CLI option, this change is reflected in the --ini=diff output:

php -d date.timezone="Europe/Amsterdam" --ini=diff
Non-default INI settings:
date.timezone: "UTC" -> "Europe/Amsterdam"
html_errors: "1" -> "0"
implicit_flush: "0" -> "1"
max_execution_time: "30" -> "0"

Backward Compatibility Impact

php --ini=diff is a new CLI option added in PHP 8.5, and it does not cause any backward-compatibility issues.

Calling php --ini=diff on older PHP CLI executables does not cause any error, but the output will be the same as php --ini.

Discussion Implementation