[php] How to enable PHP short tags?

I have a web application on a Linux server which starts with <?

I needed to copy this application to a windows environment and everything is working fine except that an SQL statement is being rendered differently. I don't know if this has to do with the script beginning with <?php instead of <? because I don't know from where to enable the <? from the PHP.ini so I changed it to <?php

I know that these 2 statements are supposed to mean the same but I need to test it with <? in order to ensure that the application is exactly the same. This way I can eliminate another possibility.

Thanks

 short_open_tag = On

in php.ini And restart your Apache Server.

I'v Changed the short_open_tag Off to On on my aws centos 7 instance and php7(PHP 7.0.33 (cli) (built: Dec 6 2018 22:30:44) ( NTS )), but its not reflecting the php info page and the code. So I refer may docs and find a solution on my case. Add an extra line after the short_open_tag as asp_tags = On after that restart Apache It works on the code and I go the output correctly

php.ini file

engine = On

; This directive determines whether or not PHP will recognize code between
; <? and ?> tags as PHP source which should be processed as such. It is
; generally recommended that <?php and ?> should be used and that this feature
; should be disabled, as enabling it may result in issues when generating XML
; documents, however this remains supported for backward compatibility reasons.
; Note that this directive does not control the <?= shorthand tag, which can be
; used regardless of this directive. 
; Default Value: On   
; Development Value: Off     
; Production Value: Off  
; http://php.net/short-open-tag

short_open_tag = On

; Allow ASP-style <% %> tags   
; http://php.net/asp-tags
asp_tags = On

if using xampp, you will notice the php.ini file has twice mentioned short_open_tag . Enable the second one to short_open_tag = On . The first one is commented out and you might be tempted to uncomment and edit it but it is over-ridden by a second short_open_tag

As simple, as that, follow the following steps:

1. Go to php.ini file

2. Find short_open_tag and set it to on

   short_open_tag = On
   

3. Restart the server

To enable short_open_tag for a particular domain with php-fpm, you must edit :

/etc/php5/fpm/pool.d/xxxxxxxxxx.conf

Where xxxxx is the socket number of the domain.

And add : php_value[short_open_tag] = On

This can be done by enabling short_open_tag in php.ini:

short_open_tag = on

If you don't have access to the php.ini you can try to enable them trough the .htaccess file but it's possible the hosting company disabled this if you are on shared hosting:

php_value short_open_tag 1

For the people thinking that short_open_tags are bad practice as of php 5.4 the <?= ... ?> shorttag will supported everywhere, regardless of the settings so there is no reason not to use them if you can control the settings on the server. Also said in this link: short_open_tag

; Default Value: On
; Development Value: Off
; Production Value: Off
; http://php.net/short-open-tag
;short_open_tag=Off   <--Comment this out
; XAMPP for Linux is currently old fashioned
short_open_tag = On   <--Uncomment this

you need to turn on short_open_tags.

short_open_tag = On

if you edit your php.ini file, remember to restart your service (apache2, etc) for the edits to php.ini to take effect

Set the asp_tags = On and short_open_tag = On in both the files \apache\Apache2.2.21\bin\php.ini and \bin\php\php5.3.8\php.ini and then restart the apache server.

sed -i "s/short_open_tag = .*/short_open_tag = On/" /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

That works on php7.2 on ubuntu 16, same answer as above by Bradley Flood, although the directory in which the config file is stored has changed.

Also you can change the version in the php string to match your currently installed version.

To set short tags to open from a Vagrant install script on Ubuntu:

sed -i "s/short_open_tag = .*/short_open_tag = On/" /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

For Wamp Server users there is easier way: You may enable that setting simply (left) click once on the WampServer icon, choose PHP -> PHP settings -> short open tag. Wait for a second, then WampServer will automatically restart your PHP and also its web service.

originally from: http://osticket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3149

I can see all answers above are partially correct only. In reality all 21st Century PHP apps will have FastCGI Process Manager(php-fpm) so once you have added php-info() into your test.php script and checked the correct path for php.ini

Go to php.ini and set short_open_tag = On

IMPORTANT: then you must restart your php-fpm process so this can work!

sudo service php-fpm restart

and then finally restart your nginx/http server

sudo service nginx restart

If you are using Ubuntu with Apache+php5, then on current versions there are 2 places where you need to change to short_open_tag = On

1. /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini - this is for the pages loaded through your web server (Apache)
2. /etc/php5/cli/php.ini - this configuration is used when you launch your php files from command line, like: php yourscript.php - that goes for manually or cronjob executed php files directly on the server.

If you are using xampp in windows then please do following

1. Open XAMPP control panel.
2. Click on CONFIG button.
3. Go to PHP (php.ini) option.

Find short_open_tag using ctrl+f utility

You will found ;short_open_tag

kindly remove the semicolon (;) from line.

and keep it as short_open_tag = on

Finally, restart your Apache server

For docker add this step to Dockerfile

  ARG phpIniPath=/path/to/your/php.ini

  RUN sed -i -e 's/^short_open_tag\s*=.*/short_open_tag = On/' $phpIniPath  

In CentOS 6(tested on Centos 7 too) you can't set short_open_tag in /etc/php.ini for php-fpm. You will have error:

ERROR: [/etc/php.ini:159] unknown entry 'short_open_tag'
ERROR: Unable to include /etc/php.ini from /etc/php-fpm.conf at line 159
ERROR: failed to load configuration file '/etc/php-fpm.conf'
ERROR: FPM initialization failed

You must edit config for your site, which can found in /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf And write at end of file:

php_value[short_open_tag] =  On

This can be done by enabling short_open_tag in php.ini:

1.To locate php.ini file,on comment line execute

 php --ini

you will get some thing like this,

Configuration File (php.ini) Path: /etc
Loaded Configuration File:         /etc/php.ini
Scan for additional .ini files in: /etc/php.d
Additional .ini files parsed:      /etc/php.d/curl.ini,
/etc/php.d/fileinfo.ini,
/etc/php.d/gd.ini,
/etc/php.d/json.ini,
/etc/php.d/mcrypt.ini,
/etc/php.d/mysql.ini,
/etc/php.d/mysqli.ini,
/etc/php.d/pdo.ini,
/etc/php.d/pdo_mysql.ini,
/etc/php.d/pdo_sqlite.ini,
/etc/php.d/phar.ini,
/etc/php.d/sqlite3.ini,
/etc/php.d/zip.ini

See 2nd line from the comment output.The file will be in the mentioned path.

2.Open php.ini file and find short_open_tag. By default it is in off change it to on.

3.Restart the server,execute this comment

service httpd restart

Thanks