As a system administrator you need to admin not just Apache web server but other stuff like PHP. PHP has some cool command line options. These options are very useful for system administrators. I am sure it will save time while debugging php config problems:

Display PHP version:

$ php -v

Retrieve php’s configure options from the shell prompt:

$ php -i
$ php –i | less

Display list of compiled in modules

$ php –m

Read man page of php for more options.