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Doc Bug #32625 Emphasis needed on restarting after changing Path variable
Submitted: 2005-04-07 16:49 UTC Modified: 2005-04-07 23:46 UTC
From: peter dot ordal at rochester dot edu Assigned:
Status: Closed Package: Documentation problem
PHP Version: 5.0.4 OS: Windows Server 2003
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
 [2005-04-07 16:49 UTC] peter dot ordal at rochester dot edu
Description:
------------
The following note was rejected from comments to the PHP manual, so I am submitting it here. This attaches to the instructions on how to get php_mysql support under PHP 5 on Windows.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.databases.php#faq.databases.mysql.php5

---
Users of Windows who run IIS should be aware that it takes a system restart for IIS to re-read your Path environment variable. This is apparently by design, as IIS is started by the Windows services manager which inherits its environment once only, on system start.

For me, running PHP on Windows Server 2003 & IIS 6, any page request would hang as PHP searched for and did not find libmysql.dll. My workaround (until the load was low enough to safely restart the server) was to put libmysql.dll in /windows/system32.
---

I don't think this exact text should be included in the manual, but it seems an issue worth making users aware of. There is a link to "setting up the Windows systems PATH" http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.installation.php#faq.installation.addtopath in this answer, which, without comment includes the step "Press OK and restart your computer". Since the user is not prompted to restart by Windows, it seems worthwhile to at least flag that step with something like "This is required."

I felt this would be better as a note to the manual because the manual is not technically in error, and thus I wouldn't personally call it a "bug". It just seemed like a friendly piece of advice to give to other users.

Reproduce code:
---------------
Also, be sure libmysql.dll is available to the systems PATH.

Expected result:
----------------
With the instruction to restart the system buried and not explained, I felt it may be susuperfluous. I expeced PHP to be using the new Path without a restart. (This applies to IIS only, I believe.)

Actual result:
--------------
PHP used the "old" path until I restarted the entire system.

Patches

Pull Requests

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 [2005-04-07 22:49 UTC] peter dot ordal at rochester dot edu
Misreported version as irrelevant at first; fixed
 [2005-04-07 23:46 UTC] dmytton@php.net
This bug has been fixed in the documentation's XML sources. Since the
online and downloadable versions of the documentation need some time
to get updated, we would like to ask you to be a bit patient.

Thank you for the report, and for helping us make our documentation better.

A note has been added to http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.installation.php#faq.installation.addtopath
 
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