What is the difference between local value and master value

Question

When I display phpinfo(); i see two columns: local value and master value. When the web-server will choose local value and when it will choose master value?

Answer 1

master is either the value compiled into PHP, or set via a main php.ini directive. e.g. The value that's in effect when PHP fires up, before it executes any of your code.

local is the value that's currently in effect at the moment you call phpinfo(). This local value is the END result of any overrides that have taken place via ini_set() calls, php_value directives in httpd.conf/.htaccess, etc...

e.g.

php.ini:     foo=bar
httpd.conf:  php_value foo baz
.htaccess:   php_value foo qux
ini_set:     ini_set('foo', 'kittens');

Given that, the master value is qux, and the local value is kittens.

Answer 2

"Master Value" (from php.ini) could be overridden with "Local Value" in httpd.conf, .htaccess or other Apache configuration with php_value directive.

The first is the local value, the second is the global value. The local value overrides the global value and is set within PHP, HTACCESS, etc. whereas the global value is set within php.ini. To answer your question, the first value is used.

Answer 3

local value in .htaccess or .user.ini (folder level configuration file) overrides master value set in php.ini (main php configuration file)

so even if we set master values in php.ini, we need to check local values .htaccess or .user.ini

so php will check the local values first.