PHP, what are the effects - cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 - in php.ini on a web server (wp)

Question

On my server, the host provides several alternative PHP.ini configurations.

The only one that has a Zip extension (I need) is described as:

zip_cgi.fix_pathinfo

Advanced settings for advanced users: cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 and Zip extension enabled

I use the website mainly for wordpress, but I would like to know what are the possible consequences (or meanings) of this.

from: http://www.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.cgi.fix-pathinfo

Provides real PATH_INFO / PATH_TRANSLATED support for CGI. PHP's previous behavior was to set PATH_TRANSLATED to SCRIPT_FILENAME and not try to figure out what PATH_INFO is. For more information on PATH_INFO, see the CGI specifications. Setting this parameter to 1 will cause PHP CGI to correct its paths to meet specifications. Setting it to zero causes PHP to behave like before. It is enabled by default. You must correct your scripts to use SCRIPT_FILENAME, not PATH_TRANSLATED.

a google search provided me with only blurry results, and also directly asked the owner (call-center girls really do not understand, and technical guys do not respond ..)

Answer 1

It seems that the ZIP extension expects the URL to be passed as the PATH_INFO variable. CGI and FastCGI PHP implementations do not have PATH_INFO available, so when trying to pass a URI together, PHP fails. One way is to set cgi.fix_pathinfo to true.