[PHP-INSTALL] php.ini not being read

[markcoth]

I've compiled and installed Apcache 2.0.52 and PHP 5.0.3 with the config 
file path set to "/etc".  When I hit a php page through apache that 
contains phpinfo(), it shows:

  Configuration File (php.ini) Path -->      /etc
I set the session.save_path to /tmp in /etc/php.ini.
When I hit the phpinfo() again, the session.save_path is set to empty:
  session.save_path     no value        no value
The permissions on the php.ini are set to readable by everybody (644). 
The /tmp directory is writable and readable by everybody (776).

What am I missing here??