This article assumes that you are running an Mac based operating system, and that you have a dedicated server or VPS and have root access.
Connect to your host:
ssh your.hostname.com or ssh 111.111.111.111
Where 111.111.111.111 is your main server IP
The system will ask you for a user and password. The username is "root" (no quotes1)
The password is the root password. You will now be connected to your server.
next type:
cd /usr/local/lib/ then cp php.ini php.iniBACKUP
which makes a backup of the original file
Next type:
pico php.ini
You have now opened pico which is a Linux text editor.
Now you can modify the variables that you need.
When you are done press ctrl+x and when it asks if you want to save the modified buffer type "y" (no quotes needed) and press enter to save the new php.ini
Then type:
service httpd restart
This will load the new php configuration into Apache.