PHP Environment Compare

How it works

What it does

PHP Environment Compare accepts two sanitized environment summaries—selected directives, loaded extension lists, or compact php -i style excerpts—and reports meaningful differences. It targets the classic “works locally but not in production” gap analysis.

When to use it

• Extension missing in production (ext-intl, ext-gd, etc.)
• Timezone, memory, or upload directive drift
• CLI vs FPM mismatch investigations

How input is processed safely

Paste minimal summaries, not entire production phpinfo HTML. The tool parses text fields only; it does not connect with your credentials, does not scrape URLs, and does not execute PHP from the paste. Warnings discourage secret-laden dumps.

Examples

• Local has intl, production does not
• display_errors differs across SAPIs
• OPcache enabled only in FPM

Common mistakes

• Pasting complete phpinfo with environment variables and paths
• Comparing different PHP major versions without noting that fact
• Ignoring that Apache/mod_php and FPM read different ini files

Environment compare shines when you feed it curated lists: extension names, a dozen critical directives, and SAPI labels. That beats dumping megabytes of phpinfo HTML that includes transient noise and secrets.

Typical high-signal differences include missing extensions, divergent timezone/locale, memory/upload limits, OPcache enablement, and Zend/extension debug builds. Capture those deliberately from both sides using the same method.

After you find a delta, change one variable at a time in staging. Confirm the application symptom disappears before you declare victory, and record the final baseline for the next incident.

Practical tips

• Keep inputs small and representative; huge pastes slow feedback and raise risk of accidental secret disclosure.
• After using PHP Environment Compare, verify the result in your own environment (correct SAPI, correct host, correct project root).
• Cross-link findings to ZendStudio.net PHP error guides and IDE setup pages when the next step is configuration rather than code edits.
• Prefer repeatable project tooling (CI, Composer scripts, IDE inspections) for repo-wide enforcement; this page is for interactive problem-solving.

Privacy note

Do not paste a complete production phpinfo() dump. Strip environment variables, document roots, and credentials. Prefer php -i filtered sections or explicit directive lists.

Safety notes

• Submitted tool contents are not written to analytics or search logs.
• This site never evaluates arbitrary PHP from the browser.
• Generated configs are starting points—validate on a staging host before production.