php.ini seems broken

Hello,

Quick and somewhat stupid question. I have a functioning installation of PHP with apache 1.3.36 (when I <?phpinfo();?>, it works).

However, when I provide a specific configration file (or even the backup copy at php.ini-reccomended), phpinfo() stops working. My first guess is that I did something horrible to the .ini files, but I can't seem to find a way to test them, nor a system backup. I would really like to a) change some values available in php.ini, and b) get a concrete working installation back.

Is there a way to test the configuration/installation like perl -c ? Do I have to go out and try to build from source again? Can anyone point out a reference that *doesn't* start off with "phpinfo()"?

re: php.ini seems broken

What do you mean by "phpinfo() stops working"?

re: php.ini seems broken

Hi.

Seeing as the short-tags (<?..?>) are disabled by default in PHP, it would be perfectly normal that "<?phpinfo()?>" won't work with the default, recommended, php.ini configuration file.

Try using the normal PHP tags (<?php...?>) instead. Like so:
If that is not the problem, please explain the problem a little better.
Like what exactly is your script doing, and how is this different from what you expect it to do.
Are you receiving any errors?

re: php.ini seems broken

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

I usually use ssi and perl, php is kinda new, didn't realize that short tags were bad. Is there a reason they are off?