How to Change php.ini Values Using .htaccess

You can find yourself often in the situation when you have to change the php.ini configuration on a server where you don't have full control (like no root, ssh) and you only can upload files to that server. Getting access to the server configuration may be difficult in this situation. Sending an email to the customer, explaining what is needed, of course he has no idea what you are talking about, trying to get in touch with the support from different hosting companies and so on - what a waste of time.

Servers supported

I've tested this method on Apache and on Zend Server. For Apache the Allow Override Directive must be properly configured.
I am pretty sure your server must NOT run PHP in "CGI mode" for this to work.

Basic examples

Practically the setting will be set with php_flag or php_value

Error handling

Show errors

php_flag display_errors {on / off}

Set error reporting level

php_value error_reporting {value}

The value is an integer and to get value you want you may want to do something like:

echo E_WARNING & ~E_NOTICE;  
echo E_ALL;

Other alternatives

From your PHP script you may also set php.ini values using the ini_set() function.