Here's an exchange from the php mailing list, which I initiated. It points
out that the available documentation on how to modify Apache's httpd.conf
file is wrong. It would also be useful to point out the correct way to set 
doc_root in php3.ini.

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I've installed Apache 1.3.4 on Win98 and it's running fine.

I've installed PHP 3.0.6, and I can't get it to work with Apache at
all. I followed the installation directions, modifying both httpd.conf
as follows:

    ScriptAlias /php3/ C:/progra~1/php/php.exe
    AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 
    AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .phtml 
    Action application/x-httpd-php3 c:/progra~1/php/php.exe

If I try loading http://my_server/phptest/hello_php.phtml, I get 
this output in my browser:

    Bad Request

    Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

    Invalid URI in request GET /phptest/hello_php.phtml HTTP/1.0

The phtml file has straight html (no php extensions). If I rename the
file to hello_php.html, everything works fine.

What am I doing wrong?

....................................................................................

Rasmus Lerdorf wrote:
> 
> >     ScriptAlias /php3/ C:/progra~1/php/php.exe
> 
> That line doesn't look right to me.  It should probably look something
> like:
> 
>   ScriptAlias /php3/ /progra~1/php/
> 
> >     AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3
> >     AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .phtml
> >     Action application/x-httpd-php3 c:/progra~1/php/php.exe
> 
> And then here use:
> 
>   Action application/x-httpd-php3 /php3/php.exe


Jason Brooke wrote:
> 
> How come you're setting the Action application to the full physical path
> when you've already aliased it to /php ?
> 
> Try changing it to:     Action application/x-httpd-php3 "/php/php.exe"

My information comes from the PHP docs (file:///C|/Program
Files/PHP/doc/install-windows95-nt.html after I installed the doc 
on my local disk):

     ScriptAlias /php3/ "c:/path-to-php-dir/php.exe" 

     AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 

     AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .phtml 

     Action application/x-httpd-php3 "php3/php.exe" 

The same page references
http://www.umesd.k12.or.us/php/win32install.html
for the latest information, and that page says this:

                 ScriptAlias /php3/ "c:/path-to-php-dir/" 
                 AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 
                 AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .phtml 
                 Action application/x-httpd-php3 "/php3/php.exe"

The first ScriptAlias setting didn't make sense to me either, but
I'm new to this so what do I know.

I finally got it to work. I had to do this:

        ScriptAlias /php3/ /progra~1/php/
        AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 
        AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .phtml 
        Action application/x-httpd-php3 /php3/php.exe

Notice that the Action specifies /php3/php.exe, not /php/php.exe.

I also had to set doc_root to the root directory for my web site;
I was initially thrown by the variable's name. I thought "root of the
php 
pages" meant PHPs HTML documentation.


Now that I have it working, can someone please explain why it works?
In particular:

- The comment on ScriptAlias in httpd.doc says this: "ScriptAlias: This 
controls which directories contain server scripts." This doesn't appear
to be true; /progra~1/php/ is the root of my PHP installation. Is the
comment just wrong? (The comment appears to be correct for cgi-bin.)

- Why is /php3/php.exe correct for Action? I have no directory named
php3. Does the /php3/ part of Action refer to the ScriptAlias?
(Putting those two together would point to php.exe.)