[RESOLVED] Changing PHP tags

Ein

Hi,

apparently my latest PHP installation (PHP5, at that) won't allow me to use <? as a PHP start tag. It only accepts <?php, which is somewhat of a chore as a lot of my existing PHP applications are based around the first. What configuration file do I need to change in order for PHP to accept <? as well as <?php as start tags?

Thanks,
Ein.

malariajoe

Ein wrote:
What configuration file do I need to change in order for PHP to accept <? as well as <?php as start tags?

Change short_open_tag from OFF to ON in your php.ini.

Ein

Thanks a bunch. 🙂

bradgrafelman

Ein wrote:
apparently my latest PHP installation (PHP5, at that) won't allow me to use <? as a PHP start tag

Rightly so, since the short_tag <? or <?= syntax is deprecated.

At any rate, don't forget to mark this thread resolved... even though the best solution would probably be to change the <? tags to <?php (just use a text-editor with find and replace?).

NogDog

It may not be an issue in your case, but for thoroughness we should point out that there are some good reasons to change your scripts to use long tags. From the Basic Syntax page:

Note: Also note that if you are embedding PHP within XML or XHTML you will need to use the <?php ?> tags to remain compliant with standards.

...and...

Note: Using short tags should be avoided when developing applications or libraries that are meant for redistribution, or deployment on PHP servers which are not under your control, because short tags may not be supported on the target server. For portable, redistributable code, be sure not to use short tags.

bradgrafelman

Just to extend a quote:

...because short tags may not be supported on the target server...

...at that time, or at any time in the future when PHP is upgraded or the configuration is changed...

Houdini

The advice you are getting about not using short tags should be taken if only for one reason using <?php and ?> to open and close a PHP segment will always work whereas usin <? and ?> may not, so take the sure bet and go ahead and amend all your scripts like bradgrafelman stated in an earlier post just use your editor to search and replace the <? with <?php I mean how hard is that really?

Ein

Houdini wrote:
The advice you are getting about not using short tags should be taken if only for one reason using <?php and ?> to open and close a PHP segment will always work whereas usin <? and ?> may not, so take the sure bet and go ahead and amend all your scripts like bradgrafelman stated in an earlier post just use your editor to search and replace the <? with <?php I mean how hard is that really?

Harder than you can imagine, apparently. 😉

Thjanks for the advice, everyone.

Roger_Ramjet

Ein wrote:
Harder than you can imagine, apparently. 😉

Then get a decent text editor that will search and replace across multiple files, your whole site, or your whole project in one go. And please mark this thread as RESOLVED using the Thread Tools in the menu at the top of every thread.

Weedpacket

Or write a wee PHP script that will do the job (read a file, fix it, write it out; read the next file...). The following sequence of string search/replaces would be good in most cases (XML processing instructions would get knobbled, and if for some reason you literally want <? in the code anyway. But if you've got that sort of thing going on you'd already know about it.)

<?php
$sr = array(
	'<?='=>'<? echo',
	'<?'=>'<?php ',
	'<?php php'=>'<?php',
	'<?php xml'=>'<?xml',
	'<?php  '=>'<?php ');

file_put_contents(
	$argv[1],
	str_replace(
		array_keys($sr),
		array_values($sr),
		file_get_contents(
			$argv[1])));
?>