How to get and set php.ini variables through terminal

Get:

grep '^post_max_size ' php.ini

Replace:

sed -i 's,^post_max_size =.*$,post_max_size = 2048M,' php.ini

Note that it's a good idea to create a backup of php.ini before running sed:

cp php.ini php.ini.bak

I assume you have the values in your php.ini stored one per line and separated by = with or without surrounding spaces. Neither the variable names nor the values contain a =.

To print the post_max_size value (choose one):

<php.ini awk -F"= *" '/^ *post_max_size/{print$2}'
<php.ini sed '/^ *post_max_size/!d;s/.*= *//'
<php.ini grep -oP '^ *post_max_size *= *\K.*'

To change the post_max_size value to 2048M creating a backup called php.ini.bak:

sed -i.bak '/^ *post_max_size/s/=.*/= 2048M/' php.ini

Explanations

• <php.ini awk -F"= *" '/^ *post_max_size/{print$2}'
  • <php.ini – let the shell open php.ini and assign it to the program's stdin, this has a number of advantages, see here
  • -F"= *" – set = followed by zero or more space characters as the field delimiter
  • /^ *post_max_size/{print$2} – from the line beginning with post_max_size print field 2
• <php.ini sed '/^ *post_max_size/!d;s/.*= *//'
  • /^ *post_max_size/!d – delete every line except the one beginning with post_max_size
  • s/.*= *// – substitute everything before = and zero or more space characters after it by nothing (= delete it)
• <php.ini grep -oP '^ *post_max_size *= *\K.*'
  • -oP – print only the matched parts of a matching line and use Perl-compatible regular expressions (PCRE)
  • ^ *post_max_size *= *\K.* – search for a line beginning with post_max_size and = surrounded by zero or more space characters, then remove the text matched so far from the overall regex match (\K) and match everything after it
• sed -i.bak '/^ *post_max_size/s/=.*/= 2048M/' php.ini
  • -i.bak – change the file in place making a backup with the extension .bak
  • /^ *post_max_size/… – in the line beginning with post_max_size, do …
  • s/=.*/= 2048M/ – substitute = and everything after it with = 2048M

I wrote a simple bash script that implements Arkadiusz Drabczyk's answer.

The script auto detects the active version of php.

The script assumes you are using apache2 (you can pass a third arg to override).

I named the file php-iniset and added it to one of my bin directories.

now you can call:

php-iniset post_max_size 2048M

or call it like this to comment out the variable:

php-iniset post_max_size

You might need to tweak things like the filepath to your needs

Remember to backup your ini file first!

Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash
#
#   useage:
#   php-iniset key value
#
#   sets php ini key to value
#   if no value is supplied key will be commented
#   If value is supplied key will automatically be commented out
#
key=$1
val=$2
scope=${3:-apache2}

version=`php -r "echo substr(PHP_VERSION, 0, 3);"`
filepath="/etc/php/$version/$scope/php.ini"

if [ -f $filepath ]
then
    if [ -e $val ]
    then
        #disable if value is empty
        sudo sed -i "/^$key =.*$/s/^/;/g" $filepath

        #confirm disabled
        grep "^;$key " $filepath

    else
        #enable if value has been supplied
        sudo sed -i "/^;$key =.*$/s/^;//g" $filepath

        #modify value
        sudo sed -i "s,^$key =.*$,$key = $val," $filepath

        #confirm value
        grep "^$key " $filepath
    fi

else
    echo "$path does not exist"
fi