php.ini trouble

Hi I am new to this list and php in general. And just as I thought I was getting the hang of it, the changed the global_variables settings :-( I am using a Mac G5 10.2.8 and the newest php compilation. I thought that changing the php.ini file in /usr/local/php/lib/php.ini so from off to on would do the trick, but my old code still do not work. And yes, i did restart apache, and when that didn't work I restarted my G5. But it doesn't work. Suggestions?