The behaviour of the Apache PHP module is affected by settings in php.ini. Configuration settings from php.ini may be overridden by php_flag settings in the server configuration file or local .htaccess files.
Example #1 Turning off PHP parsing for a directory using .htaccess
php_flag engine off
| Name | Default | Changeable | Changelog | 
|---|---|---|---|
| engine | "1" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.0.5. | 
| child_terminate | "0" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.0.5. | 
| last_modified | "0" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.0.5. | 
| xbithack | "0" | PHP_INI_ALL | Available since PHP 4.0.5. | 
Here's a short explanation of the configuration directives.
engine
     boolean
    
      Turns PHP parsing on or off.
      This directive is really only useful in the Apache module
      version of PHP. It is used by sites that would like to turn
      PHP parsing on and off on a per-directory or per-virtual
      server basis. By putting engine off
      in the appropriate places in the httpd.conf file, PHP can
      be enabled or disabled.
     
child_terminate
     boolean
    Specify whether PHP scripts may request child process termination on end of request, see also apache_child_terminate().
last_modified
     boolean
    Send PHP scripts modification date as Last-Modified: header for this request.
xbithack
     boolean
    Parse files with executable bit set as PHP regardless of their file ending.