PHP doesn't work (solved -- sorta)

[Adam H. Pendleton]

Well, I've figured out why PHP doesn't work, and in doing so tied in my other post about php.ini. RedHat, for reasons I don't quite understand, have decided to change the value of "short_open_tag" to "Off". It is on by default on 7.3, but the value is changed to "Off" in the php update. It doesn't take effect, however (read my php.ini post), because the setting is saved into /etc/php.ini.rpmnew instead of /etc/php.ini. On 8.0, though, the setting is "Off" in the base install. Changing the page to:

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

from:

<?

phpinfo();

?>

causes the page to execute properly. Having this set to "Off" will of course break a ton of PHP software because most PHP developers use the short form of the tag opening. This leads to my question:

Why did RedHat feel the need to change this setting? Was it done deliberately or was it an oversight? Was it indeed done by RedHat, or is this a change propagated from the default php.ini released with PHP? I know there are RedHat developers on this list, and I would like to hear their answers to these questions, since this has caused me, and many others, quite a few headaches.

ahp

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