[bens1901]

Administrator, I figured out the solution. You may Delete the post if you like, or you may leave it for others to use. Isn't it always the case that just when you ask others for you...you stumble across the answer.

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I found this script on the Web..you can run it in the Terminal window to get the OSX built-in PHP to work.

% cd /etc/httpd
% sudo apxs -e -a -n php4 libexec/httpd/libphp4.so
% echo 'echo "AddType application/x-httpd-php .php" etc/httpd/httpd.conf' | sudo sh -s
% sudo apachectl graceful
(and then it goes on to explain how to make index.php automatically load when there is not other page)

so, this script worked in the past. Yesterday I re-installed OSX and the software update brought me to 10.2.6
now the script is not working completely

when I try viewing a page at "127.0.0.1/test.php" the page is displayed as html, and the php appears too! the php-interpreter should run the necessary code and send just html to the browser, but it is not doing it.

Does anyone know what I should modify/review inorder to fix it so that the php is interpreted properly?

ANSWER:
needed to have this line of the httpd.conf activated...
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

[Rainy Day]

Yes, well that'll work, but there is a better way. Under MacOS X, you're better off not modifying Apache's main httpd.conf (as you're doing in the "script" you cite), but rather adding AddType application/x-httpd-php .php line in a separate file stored in /private/etc/httpd/users/

Notice the last line of Apple's standard httpd.conf file:

  Include /private/etc/httpd/users

That appends every file in the directory /private/etc/httpd/users/, in alphabetical order, to your /etc/httpd/httpd.conf file. So if you place a file containing only the customizations you would otherwise make to /etc/httpd/httpd.conf in the directory /private/etc/httpd/users/, your customizations will always be in effect without ever modifying your /etc/httpd/httpd.conf file, and they won't break with various system updates.

[bens1901]

great suggestion. Thanks.

-Ben