MAC Troubles

[steve0110]

In a previous post, in response to the install errror message:

Writable Session Save Path ()

Chris said this:

Edit the active copy of php.ini (our installer will find the one in use and display it in the installer screen that stops you currently).

Find the entry "session.save_path" and add an absolute path ("/tmp") works fine for me (osx 10.4.7).

If not there, add it like:
session.save_path = /tmp

Restart apache and try to reinstall.

My questions are:
What's the 'php.ini'? I can't find it anywhere using spotlight
how do I restart apache?

Thanks,
Steve

[sugarchris]

The installer will list the php.ini being used by PHP. The php.ini file contains the directives and settings for your instance of the PHP module for Apache. Editting it allows you to customize, streamline, and/or enable necessary settings for your webserver.

A good place to start looking for the particulars: http://us2.php.net/manual/en/ini.php

For your particular problem, run the installer to the point where it tells you where to find your php.ini file (I forget the exact step, but it happens early).

Open that file with a text editor. OSX's TextEdit (in /Applications) works just fine. If you do *not* get prompted with a "Enter your User/Password" dialogue box, there is a chance that you will not be able to save your changes.

Once you have it opened, follow my previous post (which you quoted here) and add/edit the session.save_path directive. Save & close.

To restart apache, depending on how you installed it (via DevTools or some 3rd party), the exact method may vary. How did you get apache/php in there?

[steve0110]

OK, I'm kind of a dummy, so... which installer do I run until the point where it tells you where to find your php.ini file?

[Antonio]

The installer will list the php.ini being used by PHP. The php.ini file contains the directives and settings for your instance of the PHP module for Apache. Editting it allows you to customize, streamline, and/or enable necessary settings for your webserver.

A good place to start looking for the particulars: http://us2.php.net/manual/en/ini.php

For your particular problem, run the installer to the point where it tells you where to find your php.ini file (I forget the exact step, but it happens early).

Open that file with a text editor. OSX's TextEdit (in /Applications) works just fine. If you do *not* get prompted with a "Enter your User/Password" dialogue box, there is a chance that you will not be able to save your changes.

Once you have it opened, follow my previous post (which you quoted here) and add/edit the session.save_path directive. Save & close.

To restart apache, depending on how you installed it (via DevTools or some 3rd party), the exact method may vary. How did you get apache/php in there?

I just commented on this in another thread, and will elaborate here.

The file should be in /usr/php/lib/php.ini (which is normally all invisible)

The best way to edit it without messing with the permissions (of ANY invisible folder, which can screw with your OS installation) is to open NetInfo Manager (in the utilities folder) and create a root user account.
Go to the Security dropdown menu and setup a root password. From there, you can log in to OS X as the system admin (not the same as normal admin accounts... this one makes you GOD, as in Unix root GOD, so tread carefully).
Within the root user login, you have read and write permissions to all directories.
(When you've finished whatever and log back into your normal user account, your permissions are as normal.)

You can reveal all the invisible files and folders by running these two commands in the Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

Replacing TRUE with FALSE, then running killall Finder again will return the folders to invisible...
however I prefer to leave everything viewable in the root admin account, as when I use it, it's usually to tweak an invisble item and I would prefer not to run redundant commands.

And I would recommend Apple's Xcode or BBEdit Lite in place of TextEdit. They are more robust and won't pester you about the file extension or add text formatting to the file.

If the thought of using a Terminal sends you running, you can always use something like Tinkertool to reveal your invisible files and folders.

Hope that helps.

[Antonio]

And not to nitpick or insult, but "Mac" is preferred to "MAC", when referring to MacIntosh, as MAC is an abbreviation for medium access control address, and in other technical forums, some less polite folk may flame you over it.