LAMPdocs: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP

Using zip files is a common practice for web. Zip archives are very useful as they are supported by all major operating systems and don’t require any special software. XP and Vista have the embedded support of this file format, you won’t also have problems opening these files in Linux. You can also work with these files in PHP. in order to do this, you should have ZZIPlib installed - it allows the easiest way to work with zip archives.

In this article I will tell you how to add zip file support for your PHP installation. As usually, we will need root access to our server with PHP compiled from source files.

In this article I will describe how to add zip support to PHP5 as it is installed at most servers at the moment. My OS is CentOS, but the installation should not differ from other operating systems, it’s easy enough to add zip functions.

First of all we need to ensure we have zlib installed. Run rpm -qa | grep zlib to check whether it is already installed and install it using yum if it is not present in the list created by the output of previous command. yum install zlib* should install everything related to zlib - that’s what we need to run zip.

Then run phpinfo() and copy the configure line you have. It should look like: ./configure –with-apxs –with-curl –with-curl-dir=/usr/local/lib –with-gd –with-gd-dir=/usr/local –with-gettext –with-jpeg-dir=/usr/local/lib –with-kerberos, etc. Then you need to add –enable-zip to this line.

Then you need to go to the directory where PHP source files are located. If you server has Directadmin installed, you should go to /usr/local/directadmin/customapache - your PHP files should be located there. Then change directory to the one with PHP source files and run the configuree command with –enable-zip added. Then - make and make install as usually.

After this all you need is to reboot apache. Your PHP installation should now support zip functions.

If you are often working with PHP upgrades, you should do this automatically - you already know all the issues you might face. But if it’s done for the first time, it is quite hard to find your problem. I will tell you about the most common issue and about the applicable actions to fix this.

When you update your PHP installation via Directadmin build system or when you do this manually, new modules are added to httpd.cond, but the older ones are not deleted. This usually causes problems, as apache refuses to start after PHP upgrade, What do you need to do in order to tun apache again?

You need to edit your httpd.conf file (it is usually located at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf). Open this file fith any editor you like and comment all strings that contain “php4″. The same directives for PHP5 are added automatically so you don’t have to worry about it. When you comment everything related to PHP4, you should save httpd.conf and try to reboot apache. If everything is OK, it should start, if not - you have to follow its logs or errors you receive at the command line window. Let me remind you that most useful way to restart apache is service httpd restart.

Sometimes you need to change the word order in a line for some reason. I am going to show you a PHP solution that allows you to create all possible word combinations from a string. The code below should explain you all operations that are performed.

<?

// Factorial
function fact($s){
if ($s==0) return 1;
else return $fact = $s * fact($s-1);
}

$phrase=”Your Phrase Comes Here”;
// Let’s count the number of words by creating an array
$words=explode(” “, $phrase);
$n=count($words);

// Here comes a loop that creates all possible combinations of array positions
for ($m=1; $m<=fact($n); $m++)
{
$ken = $m-1;
$f = 1;
$a = array();
for($iaz=1; $iaz<=$n; $iaz++)
{
$a[$iaz] = $iaz;
$f = $f*$iaz;
}
for($iaz=1; $iaz<=$n-1; $iaz++)
{
$f = $f/($n+1-$iaz);
$selnum = $iaz+$ken/$f;
$temp = $a[$selnum];
for($jin=$selnum; $jin>=$iaz+1; $jin–)
{
$a[$jin] = $a[$jin-1];
}
$a[$iaz] = $temp;
$ken = $ken%$f;
}
$t=1;

// Let’s start creating a word combination: we have all the necessary positions
$newphrase=”";

// Here is the while loop that creates the word combination
while ($t<=$n)
{
$newphrase.=$words[$a[$t]-1].” “;
$t++;
}
// Output of the phrase
echo $newphrase.”\r\n”;

}

?>

The example above will output:

Your Phrase Comes Here
Your Phrase Here Comes
Your Comes Phrase Here
Your Comes Here Phrase
Your Here Phrase Comes
Your Here Comes Phrase
Phrase Your Comes Here
Phrase Your Here Comes
Phrase Comes Your Here
Phrase Comes Here Your
Phrase Here Your Comes
Phrase Here Comes Your
Comes Your Phrase Here
Comes Your Here Phrase
Comes Phrase Your Here
Comes Phrase Here Your
Comes Here Your Phrase
Comes Here Phrase Your
Here Your Phrase Comes
Here Your Comes Phrase
Here Phrase Your Comes
Here Phrase Comes Your
Here Comes Your Phrase
Here Comes Phrase Your

You can play with number combinations instead of words.

When you need to work with Flash in PHP, you have to install Ming. Ming is an open source library that allows you to deal with flash from command line. We will use it for our PHP scripts.

First of all, we need to download the library from Sourceforge. Link that you can find on php.net leads to Wiki page and you cannot find the link there. I’ve found this link on Google and here it is: Ming.

I’ve used ming-0.4.0-beta5 and it went well after some time. I will tell you how to install it fast and easy, as usual.

We need to untar the archive downloaded with tar -xzvf . Then - usual Linux commands:
./configure
make
make install

Then we need to add ming support to PHP. Though PHP 5.2.5 has ming library in the archive, it refused to install telling me about an error with one swf function.

You need to copy all files from php_ext folder of ming to your untarred php installation package, replacing existing files. Then we need to recompile PHP for ming support. We need to add –with-ming to configure line. PHP configuration also has nothing special.

./configure … –with-ming
make clean
make
make install

Then you need to restart Apache. If everything went OK, you should see something like this in phpinfo() output:

You are now welcome to create your Flash movies using ming functions in PHP. Have fun!

Recently I’ve seen many solutions on how to install Zend Optimizer using custom build script in Directadmin. I’d like to show you how to install it on almost any linux server using usual linux commands.
First of all, let’s download it from Zend server (they require to register in order to obtain this link.

wget http://downloads.zend.com/optimizer/3.2.8/ZendOptimizer-3.2.8-linux-glibc21-i386.tar.gz

Then we’ll need to extract all the files from this archive.

tar -zxvf ZendOptimizer-3.2.8-linux-glibc21-i386.tar.gz

Let’s change directory to the newly created one:

cd ZendOptimizer-3.2.8-linux-glibc21-i386

Instead of ./configure we need to run ./install.sh

./install

Then you will be asked about your php.ini path and the type of your web server. Installer will automatically reboot apache so the changes will be applied immediately.

Using this kind of installation will save you from any unexpected errors that may appear if you use custom build script for Directadmin or anything else but a tar/gz archive.

Sometimes you need to remove limits that are automatically added by DirectAdmin. For example, you are not allowed to include files from anywhere but your home directory, you cannot use CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION in php and so on.

The first case is the result of open_basedir protection. If you’re not running a hosting service and all sites are yours, it is enough safe to disable open_basedir protection for you own sites if you really need it. Safe mode may prevent you from running some scripts and you might also need to turn it off. This can be done from Directadmin Admin Panel. Just follow the screenshot below:

Then you should find your domain and disable open_basedir and safe mode for it. I usually disable these protections by default, but I don’t recommend to do it when you run a hosting service.

Don’t forget to restart Apache after your changes as they will be propagated upon httpd restart only. It will be done automatically in some time, but if you need it instantly, you should reboot it manually.

Often you need to make changes to your php.ini file. If you run locate php.ini, you will find some files, but this search won’t guide you to the correct one. You need one php.ini file that is used by current server configuration. Only changes that are applied there will be propagated to your php configuration. But how to detect which one of these PHP configuration files are those you need? There are two simple solutions and one of them won’t even require using SSH. Create a php file with the following contents:

<?
phpinfo();
?>

and run it from your browser. The output should be like this:

Just check what I’ve selected and you will find the path to your php.ini file.

The second solution is even easier but it requires SSH access. Just log in via SSH and type the following command: php -i | grep php.ini . Take a look at my output below:

This is the exact solution on how to find where your configuration file is located. Its location may be changed when installing Zend Optimizer or other stuff like this. Hope this article will help you to find where it is.

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.

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