A useful php.ini configuration for local development
Tags: experience, php
Published: 2024-03-16 10:08:22

---
title: A useful php.ini configuration for local development
published: true
date: 2015-07-31 16:15:54 UTC
tags: Experience,PHP
canonical_url: https://io.serendipityhq.com/experience/a-useful-php-ini-configuration-for-local-development/
---

Here there is a good configuration for your PHP environment. It is a good checklist to use, for example, when you [update MAMP](http://aerendir.me/2015/07/31/how-to-install-or-update-mamp-the-checklist).

Open your `php.ini`, located at `/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.6.10/conf/php.ini`.  
Keep attention to the version of PHP you are using with MAMP!

Then, find those lines and edit them:

- Higher the `memory_limit`. I’ve set it to `1073741824`, that is 1GB ![🙂](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72x72/1f642.png) (using the amount in bytes instead of in MB):
```
memory_limit = 1073741824 ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (1GB)
```
- Set the error reporting to E-ALL:
```
; error_reporting is a bit-field. Or each number up to get desired error
; reporting level
; E_ALL - All errors and warnings
; E_ERROR - fatal run-time errors
; E_WARNING - run-time warnings (non-fatal errors)
; E_PARSE - compile-time parse errors
; E_NOTICE - run-time notices (these are warnings which often result
; from a bug in your code, but it's possible that it was
; intentional (e.g., using an uninitialized variable and
; relying on the fact it's automatically initialized to an
; empty string)
; E_CORE_ERROR - fatal errors that occur during PHP's initial startup
; E_CORE_WARNING - warnings (non-fatal errors) that occur during PHP's
; initial startup
; E_COMPILE_ERROR - fatal compile-time errors
; E_COMPILE_WARNING - compile-time warnings (non-fatal errors)
; E_USER_ERROR - user-generated error message
; E_USER_WARNING - user-generated warning message
; E_USER_NOTICE - user-generated notice message
;
; Examples:
;
; - Show all errors, except for notices
;
;error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE
;
; - Show only errors
;
;error_reporting = E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR
;
; - Show all errors except for notices
;
error_reporting = E_ALL
```
- Display errors, so you can see all the errors produced by your app:
```
; Print out errors (as a part of the output). For production web sites,
; you're strongly encouraged to turn this feature off, and use error logging
; instead (see below). Keeping display_errors enabled on a production web site
; may reveal security information to end users, such as file paths on your Web
; server, your database schema or other information.
display_errors = On
```
- Display startup errors, that is useful, for example, to intercept errors caused by new PHP extensions installed, as Intl, for example:
```
; Even when display_errors is on, errors that occur during PHP's startup
; sequence are not displayed. It's strongly recommended to keep
; display_startup_errors off, except for when debugging.
display_startup_errors = On
```
- Set the `error_log` directory: it may happen that a blank page appears and this is the only way to know what happened.
```
; Log errors to specified file. PHP's default behavior is to leave this value
; empty.
; http://php.net/error-log
; Example:
error_log = php_errors.log
; Log errors to syslog (Event Log on Windows).
;error_log = syslog
```
- Set the default timezone:
```
[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; Will be changed by MAMP to system timezone
date.timezone = "Europe/Rome"
```

Those are the base modifications you have to do to have a good development environment.

Maybe you want also activate some extensions and this requires edit the php.ini file too:

- [How to install the PHP Intl extension](http://aerendir.me/2015/07/17/how-to-install-php-intl-module-in-mamp/);
- [Set a cacert.pem file for cURL](http://aerendir.me/2016/04/29/magento-2-ssl-certificate-problem-unable-to-get-local-issuer-certificate-curl-problem/);
- How to install xDebug.

## WARNING!

Setting all the errors to be shown is the worst practice in production as those errors may provide an attacker a lot of useful information about your system: **on production, ever turn off all the errors! Ever!**

Remember to “Make. Ideas. Happen.”.

I wish you flocking users, see you soon!

L'articolo [A useful php.ini configuration for local development](https://io.serendipityhq.com/experience/a-useful-php-ini-configuration-for-local-development/) proviene da [ÐΞV Experiences by Serendipity HQ](https://io.serendipityhq.com).