Frequently Asked Questions

The NearlyFreeSpeech.NET FAQ (*)

Programming (*)

What is a software realm?

How do I set up the server to allow web applications to write files?

How does CGI work at NearlyFreeSpeech.NET?

What can I do if I want a script to run every so often on my site (like cron)?

How do I customize my PHP configuration?

You can place customized PHP configuration directives in the file /home/conf/php.ini. This file does not exist by default; create it if you need it. Give the file 644 permissions, so it is readable but not writable by the webserver.

PHP will process this file after, not instead of, the system php.ini file, so you only need your site-specific changes.

This file is not parsed on every request. Changes take a few minutes of idle time to take effect. If your site is never idle, changes may never take effect. To help it along, you can run nfsn web-kick from the command line on the ssh server to force the reconfiguration. Alternatively, you can place your site in maintenance mode for a minute from the Site Information panel in our member interface.

Use the phpinfo() function to review the active config and confirm that your changes have taken effect.

Examples:

You may include any directive supported by the version of PHP you are using in this file. For more information about PHP configuration directives, see the official PHP documentation.

What is the path to the root of my site in PHP?

What is the best HTML editor to use with your system?

How do I alter the PHP memory limit?

What references do you recommend for web technologies?

Do you have register_globals enabled for PHP?

What is the path to the root of my site for CGI scripts?

How do I change the version of PHP that my site uses?

How do I control what user a CGI script runs as?

Can I compile my own CGI application on your servers?

I used an absolute path in an SSI and it didn't work. What should I do?

How do I write files from scripts run by the web server?

How do I protect an upload directory from being exploited?