repair broken symlinks / reinstall php5

Question

How the I repair broken symlinks? / Delete 'dead' files?

Context: Since I messed up my php.ini configuration on one of my local testservers, I decided to re-installed the basic webserver stuff. (apache2, php5,..)

Problem: After installation is /etc/apache2/php5/php.ini missing at all, /etc/apache2/php5/conf.d is a 'broken symlink', I think.

Error: During installation: Not replacing deleted config file /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

So what's these 'broken symlinks'? I can find them using 'ls /dir', they are colored in red :) I tried "rm /etc/php5 -R -f"? But it doesn't work... And how should I get rid of the php.ini 'zombie-file'? All I want is a new php5 installation.

Solution

You can do it like that:

apt-get purge libapache2-mod-php5 php5 && \
    apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5

Comments

[d-_-b]

THANK. YOU. So. MUCH ! I've tried everything on this site...your answer worked

[arkoak]

in my case I also needed to reinstall php-mysql , modified the command slightly to apt-get purge libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php-mysql && apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5 php-mysql