Does the .user.ini file work for subdirectories?

Question

Does the .user.ini file that controls folder specific PHP settings also descend into the subfolders?

I was reading a few websites and they suggest that

Answer 1

Yes, it should work. However, I had the same issue with .user.ini files not setting php_value's recursively. According to official (and short) documentation on php.net they should work recursively (as .htaccess did):

PHP scans for INI files in each directory, starting with the directory of the requested PHP file, and working its way up to the current document root (as set in $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']). In case the PHP file is outside the document root, only its directory is scanned.

What I have found out is that Apache configuration had one trailing slash too much which caused .user.ini files not to work recursively.

Take a look at your phpinfo(), specifically SCRIPT_FILENAME variable. Notice two slashes - where should be just one:

$_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'] = //home/site/public_html/phpnfo.php

The reason for this was coming from apache config, which contained one trailing slash too much.

<IfModule !mod_php5.c>
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
            SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/lib/php/php-fpm.sockets/site.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
    </FilesMatch>
    DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
</IfModule>

Apache config doesn't include trailing slashes for directories so instead of fcgi://localhost/ this should be written as fcgi://localhost like this:

<IfModule !mod_php5.c>
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
            SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/lib/php/php-fpm.sockets/site.sock|fcgi://localhost"
    </FilesMatch>
    DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm
</IfModule>

After change, restart Apache/php-fpm and you are set.

Update: As it turns out, trailing slash errors in Apache config are still common thing and can lead to different errors and bad php practices (eg set in DocumentRoot /var/www/web/ ).

Answer 2

Instead of reading "few websites" I would sugest reading PHP manual:

Since PHP 5.3.0, PHP includes support for .htaccess-style INI files on a per-directory basis. These files are processed only by the CGI/FastCGI SAPI. This functionality obsoletes the PECL htscanner extension. If you are using Apache, use .htaccess files for the same effect.

In addition to the main php.ini file, PHP scans for INI files in each directory, starting with the directory of the requested PHP file, and working its way up to the current document root (as set in $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']). In case the PHP file is outside the document root, only its directory is scanned.

http://php.net/manual/en/configuration.file.per-user.php