php5.3.3 date.timezone again php.ini directive not taken into account

Question

System: Debian Lenny/Apache 2.2/php5.3.3 compiled from sources

I\'m strugglying with the date.timezone within php.ini.

I can define the TZ using in the php s

Answer 1

I think you're missing the quotes:

date.timezone = "Europe/Berlin"

The value is a string according to: ini.date.timezone on PHP.net which must be wrapped in quotes.

Answer 2

Hope it can help others on debian's like distros :

SOLVED:
needed to tell Apache to load the wanted php.ini file

Context:
PHP loaded as an Apache module (eg DSO)

HOW in short :
shell ENV

PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR=/pathtophpini
export PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR

http.conf

# ...
# DSO Modules: PHP as an Apache module
SetEnv PHPRC /usr/pathtophpini
SetEnv PHP_INI_SCAN_DIR /usr/pathtophpini

LoadModule php5_module /pathtophpmod/libphp5.so
PHPINIDir /pathtophpini
# ...

Shell

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart   

Now just checking that the loaded configuration file php.ini is the right one either using the php-cli in commandline or phpinfo() :

/path/to/your/phpcli/bin/php -i | grep php.ini | tail -n2   
# which gives you the expected answer
Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /pathtophpini/php.ini
Additional .ini files parsed => /pathtophpini/php.ini

Some more documentation :
on that very particular point, provided there are very few docs on that subject, as this is a kind of shared responsability topic between apache and php matters :
on stackoverflow
on php manual
askapache