PHP parse_ini_file() performance?

Question

I know some people store settings in an .ini file and get the values with parse_ini_file() in PHP. Without running tests, I am curious about performance.

Do you know if opcode cache can cache any of this type of stuff if setting are in an ini file?

Answer 1

I had always harboured the suspicion that parse_ini_file is dismally slow, and that storing variables in arrays in PHP files is faster. But there's this 2004 article that says otherwise:

And lastly we test storing configuration parameters in an INI file or in a PHP file as an associative array. We found that storing in an INI file and using parse_ini_file() is faster than parsing a PHP file.

I won't entirely believe this until I test it myself when I get around to it some time. But the article (and the magazine) look solid enough to be taken seriously.

Answer 2

You will be much faster if you dont cache the ini file. All experts can cay that this is true.

Answer 3

The parse_ini_file built-in function is implemented in C. This makes it quite fast.

Answer 4

According to this blog post (English Translation)

From fastest to slowest:

1. Serialized arrays
2. Plain PHP code
3. INI files
4. XML files
5. YAML files