test.php with <? phpinfo(); ?> not working in a browser

[zzatskl]

I am trying to create a backup server and have done a clean install of FreeBSD 8.2 with Apache 2.20.0 and PHP 5.3.8. Apache seemed to install OK (I got the usual 'It Works' message), but I can't run test.php with the code in this post title. I compiled php5 with APACHE=true. If I enter this from the command line:

[cmd=%]php -r 'print_r(phpinfo());'[/cmd]

I get the php info results one would expect. But from a browser I only either get the text entered in test.php or a WSOD (depending on what I tried to solve the problem). The httpd-access.log after entering test.php in the browser shows:

192.168.0.2 - - [12/Sep/2011:23:49:45 +0100] "GET /test.php HTTP/1.1" 200 17 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:6.0.2) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/6.0.2"

Note the httpd server is running on 192.168.0.3 the browser call was from 192.168.0.2. I have been seeing these errors in the httpd-errors.log:

[Mon Sep 12 23:22:08 2011] [warn] (22)Invalid argument: Failed to enable the 'httpready' Accept Filter

and

[Mon Sep 12 21:52:12 2011] [warn] Init: Session Cache is not configured [hint: SSLSessionCache]

But I'm not sure they're relevant. There appearance depends on whether I use stop, start or restart with the apachectl command. I have only added these lines to httpd.conf:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html

And DocumentRoot has allow from all permission. Please can somebody offer some guidance. As my mother would say:

I can't see for looking

 

[Anonymous]

test.php with <? phpinfo(); ?> not working

Only a wild guess.

Did you already check the value of "short_open_tag" in the file /usr/local/etc/php.ini? The default value is "On". If by any chance this has been set to "Off", then, as matter of fact, <? phpinfo(); ?> would not work, and you would need to rewrite this to <?PHP phpinfo(); ?>.

 

[zzatskl]

Thanks, that works. However I notice in /usr/local/etc there are nowadays two sample files to copy to make a php.ini one 'development' and one 'production', in both

php -r 'print_r(phpinfo());' | grep 'short_open_tag'
[color="DarkGreen"]short_open_tag => Off => Off[/color]

However, after careful reading in both ini versions I notice the lines:

; <? and ?> tags as PHP source which should be processed as such. It's been
; recommended for several years that you not use the short tag "short cut" and
; instead to use the full <?php and ?> tag combination. With the wide spread use
; of XML and use of these tags by other languages, the server can become easily
; confused and end up parsing the wrong code in the wrong context. But because
; this short cut has been a feature for such a long time, it's currently still
; supported for backwards compatibility, but we recommend you don't use them.
; Default Value: On
; Development Value: Off
; Production Value: Off
; http://php.net/short-open-tag
short_open_tag = Off

So it just goes to show that you should 'read the manual' and not rely on code that works on a machine from an earlier installation. However, I do find the instruction a little confusing, shouldn't it read:

Default Value: Off

Perhaps this is one for the port maintainer?
As my father used to say:

If I don't see you through the week, I'll see your through the window

Thanks again for a simple but very helpful tip.