I don't think it's that useful in that form, as people will modify it, so "based on php.ini-foobar" makes more sense. And then it's changed with every release, so it might carry the version number, which adds trouble for the release process ... the good thing would have been old-style CVS/SVN $Id$ things. Maybe we should look into what git can provide there now.

That's true, and I am fine with based on php.ini-foobar.

Well, you don't have to use $Id$ tags, simple php.ini-{production,development}.in processed by autotools would give you the ability to put version number inside the ini file.

But I am not sure if this doesn't start to be bikeshedding :). You don't usually change php.ini-* between minor released, do you?

There are certainly cases where that happens. for instance 5.3.9 added a new ini setting (max input vars), and no, autotools are no option as those won't work on Windows.

Ok, in that case I still think that even simple "based on php.ini-foobar" would be an improvement :).

Yes "based on" would be an improvement. We have $Id$ tags in git. See man gitattributes, but their are rather useless.