Correct PHP5 DLL for Apache 2.2?

I have installed Apache 2.2.14 (Win32) on a Windows XP machine and am trying to add the latest PHP module. I downloaded the ZIP file from here labeled "VC9 x86 Non Thread Safe" and extracted to my Apache directory. I then copied php5.dll to Apache's bin directory and copied php.ini to C:\Windows.

In httpd.conf, I added these lines:

LoadModule php5_module "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/bin/php5.dll"
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

Now Apache will not start. error.log says this: "Can't locate API module structure php5_module in file C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/bin/php5.dll": No error"

I think I may have the wrong .dll file, because I found tutorials that use the filename php5apache2.dll and I didn't see that in the PHP package I got.

Also, I have seen references to a file called php5ts.dll, but I don't see that either.

What exactly do I need to make PHP5 work?


Hmmm, well I bet that I just found the answer, right on the page I linked in the question.

If you are using PHP with Apache 1 or Apache2 from apache.org you need to use the VC6 versions of PHP.

Downloading that now.


Update: Working Now

The solution was mostly to Read The Freaking Manual, with the caveat that part of my problem was downloading the wrong package, and "the manual" in this case was install.txt, which is included in the PHP package. So there was some trial and error.

Here's what I did to get this working:

  • Go to http://windows.php.net/download/ and get the zip file listed under "VC6 x86 Thread Safe."

The rest of the steps were in install.txt. Here's the condensed version:

  • Extract everything to C:\php
  • Make sure C:\php is in the Windows system path, and reboot if you added it
    • (In Windows XP: right-click My Computer, choose Advanced tab, click "Environment Variables," scroll down to Path in lower box, choose Edit, and append "C:\php;" to the variable value.)
  • Copy either php.ini-production or php-ini.development to simply c:\php.ini
  • In httpd.conf, change DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs" to point to the folder where you want to put your html/php files. Do use forward slashes for the path.

Also edit http.conf to add these lines:

 #How to process PHP code
 LoadModule php5_module "c:/php/php5apache2_2.dll"
 #Files that end in .php should be processed as PHP code
 AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
 #Where the php.ini file is located
 PHPIniDir "C:\php"

From there, PHP worked for me. You may also want to edit php.ini to tweak settings.