Which is better php.ini vs ini_set()

Question

I have a simple question, should I write setting or php.ini file or use ini_set() on php file. Which is better regarding the performance?

Thank you very much.

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 15 '13 at 11:32

7

Depends on your aim. php.ini settings will be applied for all php applications by default, ini_set will change php settings on the fly for the current php application.

If you have performance question, php.ini should be faster, because you skip function call of ini_set.

answered Nov 15 '13 at 11:32

Viacheslav Kondratiuk

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do you know how faster it will be if open ini file? Is it even close to micro time and even not have to concern? – Micah Nov 15 '13 at 11:38
You want to open php.ini during php application runtime? – Viacheslav Kondratiuk Nov 15 '13 at 11:40
no, I mean if I use php.ini instead of ini_set(), if its only 0.1 sec faster, that should not be concern....Am I right? I want to know a more specific consuming time. – Micah Nov 15 '13 at 11:42
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I never measured it, but yes, I think difference is very small. By the way, if you use Apache webserver you can do it at .htaccess. – Viacheslav Kondratiuk Nov 15 '13 at 11:44

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 23 '18 at 23:01

On typical 2018 hardware running ini_set('date.timezone', $timezone) 1,000,000 times takes about 500ms.

For PHP 7.1, ini_set() is definitely not slower than loading another .ini file. In fact, it is faster to run ini_set() in a second file with require(), than to load an .ini file.

Even an empty .ini file has some overhead. I suspect internally the .ini files do something similar to ini_set anyway.

# Baseline (no .ini, empty script)
$ time for ((i=0;i<1000;i++)); do php -n empty.php; done
real    0m21.214s

# php.ini: date.timezone = Australia/Sydney
$ time for ((i=0;i<1000;i++)); do php -c php.ini empty.php; done
real    0m23.015s

# inline.php: <?php ini_set('date.timezone', 'Australia/Sydney') 
$ time for ((i=0;i<1000;i++)); do php -n inline.php; done
real    0m21.150s

These numbers seem to be pretty representative. However, the performance difference here is not that meaningful. It probably comes down to what sort of environment consistency and flexibility you need.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 15 '13 at 11:36

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As I think ini_set() is better approach than open your ini file and doing changes because if you change the ini setting once than it will be applicable on you all php projects but in ini_set() you dont have to even think about your other php application.

answered Nov 15 '13 at 11:36

Meghendra S Yadav

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do you know how faster it will be if open ini file? Is it even close to micro time and even not have to concern? – Micah Nov 15 '13 at 11:37
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It will take micro time to add from php.ini. so don't have to worry about your execution time. – Meghendra S Yadav Nov 15 '13 at 11:42

Which is better php.ini vs ini_set()

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