Unable to set php_value in .htaccess file

Question

I am trying to set up NewRelic on my Apache2/PHP server, and have it report different applications per vhost. To do this, the php value newrelic.appname must be changed. It is defined by default in /etc/php.d/newrelic.ini however to do per vhost reporting, it needs to be set specifically on that vhost, as described here: https://newrelic.com/docs/php/per-directory-settings

In my /etc/php.d/newrelic.ini is set:

newrelic.appname="PHP Application;MySite.com;"

In my vhost I have the following configuration:

<Directory "/">
    AllowOverride All
    php_value newrelic.appname "MySite.com"
</Directory>

And it my .htaccess I have:

php_value newrelic.appname 'MySite.com'

But looking at phpinfo() served from a file in the same directory as the .htaccess file I get:

 Directive Name     Local/Active Value  Master/Default Value
 -----------------------------------------------------------
 newrelic.appname   PHP Application     PHP Application

Using FastCGI via spawn-fcgi.

Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

Are you running PHP as Apache module, or maybe as CGI/FastCGI application ? — pdaukintis, Feb 27 '13 at 21:10
Oops, I meant to include that in the post - I am using FastCGI. — doublesharp, Feb 28 '13 at 03:32
I happen to be using WordPress for most of my sites, so I am usin `ini_set('newrelic.appname', 'MySite.com')` in the `wp-config.php` file to more or less make this work, but I'm still not sure how to set php values in config using PHP/FastCGI. — doublesharp, Feb 28 '13 at 22:34
.htaccess is an Apache thing. When you're using Apache's mod_php, it'd work, but FastCGI isn't hooked into Apache. — ceejayoz, Mar 01 '13 at 21:33

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 06 '14 at 07:50

If you want to use .htaccess configuration files while using PHP as CGI/FastCGI, you could use htscanner PHP module, which can parse existing and new .htaccess configuration files with various options (including php_value).

UPDATE: Answer is outdated. See below for updated answer:

Since PHP 5.3.0 PHP includes support for configuration INI files on a per-directory basis. These files are processed only by the CGI/FastCGI SAPI. This functionality obsoletes the PECL htscanner extension. If you are using Apache, use .htaccess files for the same effect.

Unable to set php_value in .htaccess file

1 Answers1