Determining Server Specific Settings

[leadegroot]

I recently moved hosting and found I had some htaccess issues, specifically the AddType handler wasn't working.
I had

AddType application/x-httpd-php .html

yet .html files weren't being processed for php.

I contacted the host and they were able to quickly tell me that I needed

AddType application/x-httpd-php5

so all is well and working now but my question is how, short of asking the host, can I figure out the specific line required by a given host?
Is there a clue in the phpinfo that I can cross reference with some Apache doco somewhere?

One of my sites, on different hosting, recently stopped working and I changed an old AddHandler line to an AddType line and all was well - my bet is the host had upgraded something server side that changed what was required. I found out what it should be by trial and error. It would be nice to be able to figure it out authoritatively, rather than by guessing or waiting for the host to get back to me (although it was a good test of responsiveness - nice and fast :))

[wilderness]

Most hosts are just adding updates or patches to their software and don't take the time to read the "Version footnotes".

I've seen Apache updates through two different hosts, that stopped my htaccess from working entirely and resulted in 500 Errors taking my sites down.

Recently there was an update which changed the configuration of phpformgenerator and prevented contact via my websites. Fortunately, I was quite lucky and detected the issue in less than a week after update.

These 3rd party supports don't help matters much either.