LAMPdocs: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP

If you have installed Apache and Bind by yourself, they do not start automatically upon your server boot. In order to start them you don’t need any special knowledge, only a small linux command.
chkconfig --level 235 httpd on
chkconfig --level 235 named on

This will start these services automatically on runlevels 2,3 and 5. You don’t need to set them on other runlevels. Then you need to ensure whether everything went ok. Anothe simple command:
chkconfig --list httpd
chkconfig --list named

You should get something like this:
httpd 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off

Have fun!

Sometimes you need to have a look at Apache status, especially, if your server serves many users and if often busy. You should monitor you server’s CPU load, and view other Apache performance information.

There is a simple solution in httpd.conf, that allows you to do this directly from your browser. All you need is just to add some lines to your configuration file. First of all, you should have the following sting, that makes this possible:
LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so

Usually at the bottom of the httpd.conf you can find some lines about server status. Let’s take the comments off.
ExtendedStatus On

This will show you more information, it’s what you exactly need. You don’t have to make this information public, but it will be very informative and useful for you. Then go down and add these lines:
<Location /server-status>
SetHandler server-status
</Location>

This URL will be relative to your Servername, so make sure you have set it up. You also should protect this location  just as shown in the sample httpd.conf:

#    Order deny,allow
#    Deny from all
#    Allow from .example.com

Just add your own limits and have fun! Apache visualization is done!

Sometimes you need to encode the whole URL, not just specific characters that are encoded with urlencode(). You might need to represent your query string or anything else as shown at W3C School. There is quite a simple solution in PHP:

<?
$string="some-string";

for ($i=0; $i<strlen($url); $i++)
{
$mass[$i]=”%”.dechex(ord($url{$i}));
}

$encoded_string=implode(”", $mass);
?>

In the sample provided the string is transformed into an array and then each array element is replaced with its hex representation. Then the array is transformed back to string.

I’ve been searching for this code on the net, but had to write it by myself and I’d like to share it with you.

This will help you to encode urls, form data or anything you like. Just paste the code and add your string! Hope this will help you to develop more efficient sites!

If your server does not have any kind of graphic interface (Directadmin, Cpanel, etc…), you’ll have to create Apache Virtualhosts manually. You will need a working Virtualhost template for this. Using Apache example will guide you to problems with .htaccess files, therefore it will work too. I will show you a working example for Apache 2. Here it is:

<VirtualHost localhost.com:80>

ServerName www.localhost.com
ServerAlias www.localhost.com localhost.com
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/localhost.com/
UseCanonicalName OFF

<Directory /var/www/html/localhost.com>

Options +Includes -Indexes
Allowoverride All

</Directory>

</VirtualHost>

In this sample your user files are located at /var/www/html/localhost.com. It will also deny directory listing (make sure to take a look at DirectoryIndex directive and add all the necessary index types in httpd.conf). Have fun as everything you need is to change localhost.com to your domain name.

Sometimes you need to run several copies of one script at the same time. The easiest method is to do something like this:

for($i=0;$i<10;$i++)
{
system ("/usr/local/bin/php go.php $i > start.log &");
echo "thread $i started";
}
?>


Not very elegant, but it works, if you are allowed to use PHP’s system() function. I will tell you how to use pcntl function for this task. Coding is quite simple too:

for ($k=1; $k<=$children; $k++)
{

$pid = pcntl_fork();
if ($pid == -1)
{
die(”could not fork\n”);
}
else if ($pid)
{
exit(0);
}
else
{
$cpid = pcntl_fork();
if ($cpid == -1)
{
die(”could not fork in child process\n”);
}
if (!$cpid)
{
// Do anything you need here
}
}
}
You should have PHP compiled with pcntl support. pcntl extention does not work in Windows environment, so this method is usable on LAMP systems only. It allows true multithreading in PHP

Sometimes you need to use the variables passed to script avoiding usage of superglobal arrays. If you are on shared hosting, you won’t have access to your php.ini file and won’t be able to change register_globals setting. A simple function will help you to do this.

<?

/**
* function to emulate the register_globals setting in PHP
* for all of those diehard fans of possibly harmful PHP settings
* @author Ruquay K Calloway
* @param string $order order in which to register the globals, e.g. ‘egpcs’ for default
*/
function register_globals($order = ‘egpcs’)
{
// define a subroutine
if(!function_exists(’register_global_array’))
{
function register_global_array(array $superglobal)
{
foreach($superglobal as $varname => $value)
{
global $$varname;
$$varname = $value;
}
}
}

$order = explode(”\r\n”, trim(chunk_split($order, 1)));
foreach($order as $k)
{
switch(strtolower($k))
{
case ‘e’: register_global_array($_ENV); break;
case ‘g’: register_global_array($_GET); break;
case ‘p’: register_global_array($_POST); break;
case ‘c’: register_global_array($_COOKIE); break;
case ’s’: register_global_array($_SERVER); break;
}
}
}
?>

If you just got a clean server without PHP installed and you are trying to do this, you might receive the following error: configure: error: no acceptable cc found in $PATH. This means you don’t have c compiler installed. Just type in yum install gcc and install all the necessary libs. Then you might receive the following message while trying to configure PHP:

configure: error: xml2-config not found. Please check your libxml2 installation.

Type in: yum list | grep xml

Your outpout should be like this:

Then you need to install everything related to libxml2 that is not yet installed. The easiest way is to type: yum install libxml*.

Now you’re welcome to make PHP as usual.

If you’re using Directadmin, you might have noticed that once a day it slows down the server. There is an easy solution to make this run without affecting too much on the server performance.

If you wanted to slow down the dataskq, edit:
/etc/cron.d/directadmin_cron
(or /etc/crontab, depending on your OS)

change:

* * * * * root /usr/local/directadmin/dataskq

to be

* * * * * root nice -n 19 /usr/local/directadmin/dataskq

Then reload/restart cron/crond. Have fun!

Iconv functions are often used in PHP when you have problems with character encoding. When you have non-latin chars in the text you work with, you might have problems with storing them, writing into database, etc. It becomes useful when you use several different encodings and when you need to store or output some text into a single place. So let’s go to PHP.net and take a look at all the functions that are related to iconv. It’s a pity, but you can’t find the list of encodings there. Just some examples are located under user contributed notes. But what to do if you need to have the list of encodings, to choose some to use? Just use the command line, with the following command: iconv -l . Let me paste the command output here:
437, 500, 500V1, 850, 851, 852, 855, 856, 857, 860, 861, 862, 863, 864, 865,
866, 866NAV, 869, 874, 904, 1026, 1046, 1047, 8859_1, 8859_2, 8859_3, 8859_4,
8859_5, 8859_6, 8859_7, 8859_8, 8859_9, 10646-1:1993, 10646-1:1993/UCS4,
ANSI_X3.4-1968, ANSI_X3.4-1986, ANSI_X3.4, ANSI_X3.110-1983, ANSI_X3.110,
ARABIC, ARABIC7, ARMSCII-8, ASCII, ASMO-708, ASMO_449, BALTIC, BIG-5,
BIG-FIVE, BIG5-HKSCS, BIG5, BIG5HKSCS, BIGFIVE, BS_4730, CA, CN-BIG5, CN-GB,
CN, CP-AR, CP-GR, CP-HU, CP037, CP038, CP273, CP274, CP275, CP278, CP280,
CP281, CP282, CP284, CP285, CP290, CP297, CP367, CP420, CP423, CP424, CP437,
CP500, CP737, CP775, CP813, CP819, CP850, CP851, CP852, CP855, CP856, CP857,
CP860, CP861, CP862, CP863, CP864, CP865, CP866, CP866NAV, CP868, CP869,
CP870, CP871, CP874, CP875, CP880, CP891, CP903, CP904, CP905, CP912, CP915,
CP916, CP918, CP920, CP922, CP930, CP932, CP933, CP935, CP936, CP937, CP939,
CP949, CP950, CP1004, CP1026, CP1046, CP1047, CP1070, CP1079, CP1081, CP1084,
CP1089, CP1124, CP1125, CP1129, CP1132, CP1133, CP1160, CP1161, CP1162,
CP1163, CP1164, CP1250, CP1251, CP1252, CP1253, CP1254, CP1255, CP1256,
CP1257, CP1258, CP1361, CP10007, CPIBM861, CSA7-1, CSA7-2, CSASCII,
CSA_T500-1983, CSA_T500, CSA_Z243.4-1985-1, CSA_Z243.4-1985-2,
CSA_Z243.419851, CSA_Z243.419852, CSDECMCS, CSEBCDICATDE, CSEBCDICATDEA,
CSEBCDICCAFR, CSEBCDICDKNO, CSEBCDICDKNOA, CSEBCDICES, CSEBCDICESA,
CSEBCDICESS, CSEBCDICFISE, CSEBCDICFISEA, CSEBCDICFR, CSEBCDICIT, CSEBCDICPT,
CSEBCDICUK, CSEBCDICUS, CSEUCKR, CSEUCPKDFMTJAPANESE, CSGB2312, CSHPROMAN8,
CSIBM037, CSIBM038, CSIBM273, CSIBM274, CSIBM275, CSIBM277, CSIBM278,
CSIBM280, CSIBM281, CSIBM284, CSIBM285, CSIBM290, CSIBM297, CSIBM420,
CSIBM423, CSIBM424, CSIBM500, CSIBM851, CSIBM855, CSIBM856, CSIBM857,
CSIBM860, CSIBM863, CSIBM864, CSIBM865, CSIBM866, CSIBM868, CSIBM869,
CSIBM870, CSIBM871, CSIBM880, CSIBM891, CSIBM903, CSIBM904, CSIBM905,
CSIBM918, CSIBM922, CSIBM930, CSIBM932, CSIBM933, CSIBM935, CSIBM937,
CSIBM939, CSIBM943, CSIBM1026, CSIBM1124, CSIBM1129, CSIBM1132, CSIBM1133,
CSIBM1160, CSIBM1161, CSIBM1163, CSIBM1164, CSIBM11621162,
CSISO4UNITEDKINGDOM, CSISO10SWEDISH, CSISO11SWEDISHFORNAMES,
CSISO14JISC6220RO, CSISO15ITALIAN, CSISO16PORTUGESE, CSISO17SPANISH,
CSISO18GREEK7OLD, CSISO19LATINGREEK, CSISO21GERMAN, CSISO25FRENCH,
CSISO27LATINGREEK1, CSISO49INIS, CSISO50INIS8, CSISO51INISCYRILLIC,
CSISO58GB1988, CSISO60DANISHNORWEGIAN, CSISO60NORWEGIAN1, CSISO61NORWEGIAN2,
CSISO69FRENCH, CSISO84PORTUGUESE2, CSISO85SPANISH2, CSISO86HUNGARIAN,
CSISO88GREEK7, CSISO89ASMO449, CSISO90, CSISO92JISC62991984B, CSISO99NAPLPS,
CSISO103T618BIT, CSISO111ECMACYRILLIC, CSISO121CANADIAN1, CSISO122CANADIAN2,
CSISO139CSN369103, CSISO141JUSIB1002, CSISO143IECP271, CSISO150,
CSISO150GREEKCCITT, CSISO151CUBA, CSISO153GOST1976874, CSISO646DANISH,
CSISO2022CN, CSISO2022JP, CSISO2022JP2, CSISO2022KR, CSISO2033,
CSISO5427CYRILLIC, CSISO5427CYRILLIC1981, CSISO5428GREEK, CSISO10367BOX,
CSISOLATIN1, CSISOLATIN2, CSISOLATIN3, CSISOLATIN4, CSISOLATIN5, CSISOLATIN6,
CSISOLATINARABIC, CSISOLATINCYRILLIC, CSISOLATINGREEK, CSISOLATINHEBREW,
CSKOI8R, CSKSC5636, CSMACINTOSH, CSNATSDANO, CSNATSSEFI, CSN_369103,
CSPC8CODEPAGE437, CSPC775BALTIC, CSPC850MULTILINGUAL, CSPC862LATINHEBREW,
CSPCP852, CSSHIFTJIS, CSUCS4, CSUNICODE, CSWINDOWS31J, CUBA, CWI-2, CWI,
CYRILLIC, DE, DEC-MCS, DEC, DECMCS, DIN_66003, DK, DS2089, DS_2089, E13B,
EBCDIC-AT-DE-A, EBCDIC-AT-DE, EBCDIC-BE, EBCDIC-BR, EBCDIC-CA-FR,
EBCDIC-CP-AR1, EBCDIC-CP-AR2, EBCDIC-CP-BE, EBCDIC-CP-CA, EBCDIC-CP-CH,
EBCDIC-CP-DK, EBCDIC-CP-ES, EBCDIC-CP-FI, EBCDIC-CP-FR, EBCDIC-CP-GB,
EBCDIC-CP-GR, EBCDIC-CP-HE, EBCDIC-CP-IS, EBCDIC-CP-IT, EBCDIC-CP-NL,
EBCDIC-CP-NO, EBCDIC-CP-ROECE, EBCDIC-CP-SE, EBCDIC-CP-TR, EBCDIC-CP-US,
EBCDIC-CP-WT, EBCDIC-CP-YU, EBCDIC-CYRILLIC, EBCDIC-DK-NO-A, EBCDIC-DK-NO,
EBCDIC-ES-A, EBCDIC-ES-S, EBCDIC-ES, EBCDIC-FI-SE-A, EBCDIC-FI-SE, EBCDIC-FR,
EBCDIC-GREEK, EBCDIC-INT, EBCDIC-INT1, EBCDIC-IS-FRISS, EBCDIC-IT,
EBCDIC-JP-E, EBCDIC-JP-KANA, EBCDIC-PT, EBCDIC-UK, EBCDIC-US, EBCDICATDE,
EBCDICATDEA, EBCDICCAFR, EBCDICDKNO, EBCDICDKNOA, EBCDICES, EBCDICESA,
EBCDICESS, EBCDICFISE, EBCDICFISEA, EBCDICFR, EBCDICISFRISS, EBCDICIT,
EBCDICPT, EBCDICUK, EBCDICUS, ECMA-114, ECMA-118, ECMA-128, ECMA-CYRILLIC,
ECMACYRILLIC, ELOT_928, ES, ES2, EUC-CN, EUC-JISX0213, EUC-JP-MS, EUC-JP,
EUC-KR, EUC-TW, EUCCN, EUCJP-MS, EUCJP-OPEN, EUCJP-WIN, EUCJP, EUCKR, EUCTW,
FI, FR, GB, GB2312, GB13000, GB18030, GBK, GB_1988-80, GB_198880,
GEORGIAN-ACADEMY, GEORGIAN-PS, GOST_19768-74, GOST_19768, GOST_1976874,
GREEK-CCITT, GREEK, GREEK7-OLD, GREEK7, GREEK7OLD, GREEK8, GREEKCCITT,
HEBREW, HP-ROMAN8, HPROMAN8, HU, IBM-856, IBM-922, IBM-930, IBM-932, IBM-933,
IBM-935, IBM-937, IBM-939, IBM-943, IBM-1046, IBM-1047, IBM-1124, IBM-1129,
IBM-1132, IBM-1133, IBM-1160, IBM-1161, IBM-1162, IBM-1163, IBM-1164, IBM037,
IBM038, IBM256, IBM273, IBM274, IBM275, IBM277, IBM278, IBM280, IBM281,
IBM284, IBM285, IBM290, IBM297, IBM367, IBM420, IBM423, IBM424, IBM437,
IBM500, IBM775, IBM813, IBM819, IBM848, IBM850, IBM851, IBM852, IBM855,
IBM856, IBM857, IBM860, IBM861, IBM862, IBM863, IBM864, IBM865, IBM866,
IBM866NAV, IBM868, IBM869, IBM870, IBM871, IBM874, IBM875, IBM880, IBM891,
IBM903, IBM904, IBM905, IBM912, IBM915, IBM916, IBM918, IBM920, IBM922,
IBM930, IBM932, IBM933, IBM935, IBM937, IBM939, IBM943, IBM1004, IBM1026,
IBM1046, IBM1047, IBM1089, IBM1124, IBM1129, IBM1132, IBM1133, IBM1160,
IBM1161, IBM1162, IBM1163, IBM1164, IEC_P27-1, IEC_P271, INIS-8,
INIS-CYRILLIC, INIS, INIS8, INISCYRILLIC, ISIRI-3342, ISIRI3342,
ISO-2022-CN-EXT, ISO-2022-CN, ISO-2022-JP-2, ISO-2022-JP-3, ISO-2022-JP,
ISO-2022-KR, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, ISO-8859-3, ISO-8859-4, ISO-8859-5,
ISO-8859-6, ISO-8859-7, ISO-8859-8, ISO-8859-9, ISO-8859-10, ISO-8859-11,
ISO-8859-13, ISO-8859-14, ISO-8859-15, ISO-8859-16, ISO-10646,
ISO-10646/UCS2, ISO-10646/UCS4, ISO-10646/UTF-8, ISO-10646/UTF8, ISO-CELTIC,
ISO-IR-4, ISO-IR-6, ISO-IR-8-1, ISO-IR-9-1, ISO-IR-10, ISO-IR-11, ISO-IR-14,
ISO-IR-15, ISO-IR-16, ISO-IR-17, ISO-IR-18, ISO-IR-19, ISO-IR-21, ISO-IR-25,
ISO-IR-27, ISO-IR-37, ISO-IR-49, ISO-IR-50, ISO-IR-51, ISO-IR-54, ISO-IR-55,
ISO-IR-57, ISO-IR-60, ISO-IR-61, ISO-IR-69, ISO-IR-84, ISO-IR-85, ISO-IR-86,
ISO-IR-88, ISO-IR-89, ISO-IR-90, ISO-IR-92, ISO-IR-98, ISO-IR-99, ISO-IR-100,
ISO-IR-101, ISO-IR-103, ISO-IR-109, ISO-IR-110, ISO-IR-111, ISO-IR-121,
ISO-IR-122, ISO-IR-126, ISO-IR-127, ISO-IR-138, ISO-IR-139, ISO-IR-141,
ISO-IR-143, ISO-IR-144, ISO-IR-148, ISO-IR-150, ISO-IR-151, ISO-IR-153,
ISO-IR-155, ISO-IR-156, ISO-IR-157, ISO-IR-166, ISO-IR-179, ISO-IR-193,
ISO-IR-197, ISO-IR-199, ISO-IR-203, ISO-IR-209, ISO-IR-226, ISO646-CA,
ISO646-CA2, ISO646-CN, ISO646-CU, ISO646-DE, ISO646-DK, ISO646-ES,
ISO646-ES2, ISO646-FI, ISO646-FR, ISO646-FR1, ISO646-GB, ISO646-HU,
ISO646-IT, ISO646-JP-OCR-B, ISO646-JP, ISO646-KR, ISO646-NO, ISO646-NO2,
ISO646-PT, ISO646-PT2, ISO646-SE, ISO646-SE2, ISO646-US, ISO646-YU,
ISO2022CN, ISO2022CNEXT, ISO2022JP, ISO2022JP2, ISO2022KR, ISO6937,
ISO8859-1, ISO8859-2, ISO8859-3, ISO8859-4, ISO8859-5, ISO8859-6, ISO8859-7,
ISO8859-8, ISO8859-9, ISO8859-10, ISO8859-11, ISO8859-13, ISO8859-14,
ISO8859-15, ISO8859-16, ISO88591, ISO88592, ISO88593, ISO88594, ISO88595,
ISO88596, ISO88597, ISO88598, ISO88599, ISO885910, ISO885911, ISO885913,
ISO885914, ISO885915, ISO885916, ISO_646.IRV:1991, ISO_2033-1983, ISO_2033,
ISO_5427-EXT, ISO_5427, ISO_5427:1981, ISO_5427EXT, ISO_5428, ISO_5428:1980,
ISO_6937-2, ISO_6937-2:1983, ISO_6937, ISO_6937:1992, ISO_8859-1,
ISO_8859-1:1987, ISO_8859-2, ISO_8859-2:1987, ISO_8859-3, ISO_8859-3:1988,
ISO_8859-4, ISO_8859-4:1988, ISO_8859-5, ISO_8859-5:1988, ISO_8859-6,
ISO_8859-6:1987, ISO_8859-7, ISO_8859-7:1987, ISO_8859-7:2003, ISO_8859-8,
ISO_8859-8:1988, ISO_8859-9, ISO_8859-9:1989, ISO_8859-10, ISO_8859-10:1992,
ISO_8859-14, ISO_8859-14:1998, ISO_8859-15, ISO_8859-15:1998, ISO_8859-16,
ISO_8859-16:2001, ISO_9036, ISO_10367-BOX, ISO_10367BOX, ISO_69372, IT,
JIS_C6220-1969-RO, JIS_C6229-1984-B, JIS_C62201969RO, JIS_C62291984B, JOHAB,
JP-OCR-B, JP, JS, JUS_I.B1.002, KOI-7, KOI-8, KOI8-R, KOI8-T, KOI8-U, KOI8,
KOI8R, KOI8U, KSC5636, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L7, L8, L10, LATIN-9,
LATIN-GREEK-1, LATIN-GREEK, LATIN1, LATIN2, LATIN3, LATIN4, LATIN5, LATIN6,
LATIN7, LATIN8, LATIN10, LATINGREEK, LATINGREEK1, MAC-CYRILLIC, MAC-IS,
MAC-SAMI, MAC-UK, MAC, MACCYRILLIC, MACINTOSH, MACIS, MACUK, MACUKRAINIAN,
MS-ANSI, MS-ARAB, MS-CYRL, MS-EE, MS-GREEK, MS-HEBR, MS-MAC-CYRILLIC,
MS-TURK, MS932, MS936, MSCP949, MSCP1361, MSMACCYRILLIC, MSZ_7795.3,
MS_KANJI, NAPLPS, NATS-DANO, NATS-SEFI, NATSDANO, NATSSEFI, NC_NC0010,
NC_NC00-10, NC_NC00-10:81, NF_Z_62-010, NF_Z_62-010_(1973), NF_Z_62-010_1973,
NF_Z_62010, NF_Z_62010_1973, NO, NO2, NS_4551-1, NS_4551-2, NS_45511,
NS_45512, OS2LATIN1, OSF00010001, OSF00010002, OSF00010003, OSF00010004,
OSF00010005, OSF00010006, OSF00010007, OSF00010008, OSF00010009, OSF0001000A,
OSF00010020, OSF00010100, OSF00010101, OSF00010102, OSF00010104, OSF00010105,
OSF00010106, OSF00030010, OSF0004000A, OSF0005000A, OSF05010001, OSF100201A4,
OSF100201A8, OSF100201B5, OSF100201F4, OSF100203B5, OSF1002011C, OSF1002011D,
OSF1002035D, OSF1002035E, OSF1002035F, OSF1002036B, OSF1002037B, OSF10010001,
OSF10020025, OSF10020111, OSF10020115, OSF10020116, OSF10020118, OSF10020122,
OSF10020129, OSF10020352, OSF10020354, OSF10020357, OSF10020359, OSF10020360,
OSF10020364, OSF10020365, OSF10020366, OSF10020367, OSF10020370, OSF10020387,
OSF10020388, OSF10020396, OSF10020402, OSF10020417, PT, PT2, PT154, R8,
RK1048, ROMAN8, RUSCII, SE, SE2, SEN_850200_B, SEN_850200_C, SHIFT-JIS,
SHIFT_JIS, SHIFT_JISX0213, SJIS-OPEN, SJIS-WIN, SJIS, SS636127,
STRK1048-2002, ST_SEV_358-88, T.61-8BIT, T.61, T.618BIT, TCVN-5712, TCVN,
TCVN5712-1, TCVN5712-1:1993, TIS-620, TIS620-0, TIS620.2529-1, TIS620.2533-0,
TIS620, TS-5881, TSCII, UCS-2, UCS-2BE, UCS-2LE, UCS-4, UCS-4BE, UCS-4LE,
UCS2, UCS4, UHC, UJIS, UK, UNICODE, UNICODEBIG, UNICODELITTLE, US-ASCII, US,
UTF-7, UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, UTF-32, UTF-32BE, UTF-32LE, UTF7,
UTF8, UTF16, UTF16BE, UTF16LE, UTF32, UTF32BE, UTF32LE, VISCII, WCHAR_T,
WIN-SAMI-2, WINBALTRIM, WINDOWS-31J, WINDOWS-874, WINDOWS-936, WINDOWS-1250,
WINDOWS-1251, WINDOWS-1252, WINDOWS-1253, WINDOWS-1254, WINDOWS-1255,
WINDOWS-1256, WINDOWS-1257, WINDOWS-1258, WINSAMI2, WS2, YU

Now all you need is just to select one of them that suits your needs and use them. Note, that if you try to use a wrong encoding, you won’t get any result, but won’t also get any error messages. So be careful when selecting encodings from the list.

In order to use iconv in PHP, you should check your configure line and recompile PHP if necessary. It should look like:

And especially iconv section:

If you don’t have all of this all you need is just to recompile PHP with –with-iconv

Sometimes we need to close access to cerain file types. We often deny directory listings and think that’s enough. But even if the files will not appear in directory indexes this will not imply that access to the files will be denied and if a remote user knows the exact location of the file, he will still be able to access the file from a browser. How can someone find out about the location of the private file? Well this doesn’t really matter too much, but he might see paths, or files, shown in a warning messages, or anything else.
So if there are ’special files’ that you want to not be served in any case to remote users then you will have to deny access to them.

In order to achieve this we will be using the standard apache module mod_access that will allow us to define rules for various contexts (<Directory>, <Files>, and <Location> sections). In this case we will be interested in the <Files> section.
Allow/Deny Directive in <Files>

Your apache might contain in the default configuration (or at least it would be nice) a configuration similar to the following one that will deny access from the browser to .htaccess files:

<Files ~ "^\.htaccess">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>

Let’s see how we can deny access to several files; let’s consider that we want to deny access to all files with the extension .inc (includes in our php application). In order to achieve this we will add the following configuration lines in the appropriate context (either global config, or vhost/directory, or from .htaccess):

<Files ~ "\.inc$">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>

Similar to this we can deny access to whatever files we might need. This does not refer to folder protection, it works just for defined file types. You can protect a directory from being viewed using Directadmin Ditectory Password protection page.