From:             peter dot ordal at rochester dot edu
Operating system: Windows Server 2003
PHP version:      Irrelevant
PHP Bug Type:     Documentation problem
Bug description:  Emphasis needed on restarting after changing Path variable

Description:
------------
The following note was rejected from comments to the PHP manual, so I am
submitting it here. This attaches to the instructions on how to get
php_mysql support under PHP 5 on Windows.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.databases.php#faq.databases.mysql.php5

---
Users of Windows who run IIS should be aware that it takes a system
restart for IIS to re-read your Path environment variable. This is
apparently by design, as IIS is started by the Windows services manager
which inherits its environment once only, on system start.

For me, running PHP on Windows Server 2003 & IIS 6, any page request would
hang as PHP searched for and did not find libmysql.dll. My workaround
(until the load was low enough to safely restart the server) was to put
libmysql.dll in /windows/system32.
---

I don't think this exact text should be included in the manual, but it
seems an issue worth making users aware of. There is a link to "setting up
the Windows systems PATH"
http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.installation.php#faq.installation.addtopath
in this answer, which, without comment includes the step "Press OK and
restart your computer". Since the user is not prompted to restart by
Windows, it seems worthwhile to at least flag that step with something
like "This is required."

I felt this would be better as a note to the manual because the manual is
not technically in error, and thus I wouldn't personally call it a "bug".
It just seemed like a friendly piece of advice to give to other users.

Reproduce code:
---------------
Also, be sure libmysql.dll is available to the systems PATH.

Expected result:
----------------
With the instruction to restart the system buried and not explained, I
felt it may be susuperfluous. I expeced PHP to be using the new Path
without a restart. (This applies to IIS only, I believe.)

Actual result:
--------------
PHP used the "old" path until I restarted the entire system.

-- 
Edit bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=32625&edit=1
-- 
Try a CVS snapshot (php4):   http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=trysnapshot4
Try a CVS snapshot (php5.0): 
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=trysnapshot50
Try a CVS snapshot (php5.1): 
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=trysnapshot51
Fixed in CVS:                http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=fixedcvs
Fixed in release:            http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=alreadyfixed
Need backtrace:              http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=needtrace
Need Reproduce Script:       http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=needscript
Try newer version:           http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=oldversion
Not developer issue:         http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=support
Expected behavior:           http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=notwrong
Not enough info:             
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=notenoughinfo
Submitted twice:             
http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=submittedtwice
register_globals:            http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=globals
PHP 3 support discontinued:  http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=php3
Daylight Savings:            http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=dst
IIS Stability:               http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=isapi
Install GNU Sed:             http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=gnused
Floating point limitations:  http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=float
No Zend Extensions:          http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=nozend
MySQL Configuration Error:   http://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=32625&r=mysqlcfg

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