MultiPHP Manager vs .htaccess PHP Version Overrides: Uncertain Precedence in Production

Goal

Determine which configuration source – the MultiPHP Manager or a per‑domain .htaccess directive – ultimately decides the PHP version that a cPanel shared hosting account uses in a production environment.

Context

In local development a single PHP binary is used, so the application runs under a known PHP version. On the production cPanel server, PHP can be served via suPHP, FastCGI, or mod_php, and the MultiPHP Manager allows a site‑wide default to be overridden by a .htaccess AddHandler or SetHandler directive. The interaction between these two mechanisms is not well documented and can lead to 500 errors when unsupported directives are present.

Constraints & Uncertainty

• The account is CloudLinux‑enabled, so the PHP Selector feature may also be in play.
• Both the system default and the .htaccess override reference the same PHP 8.2 binary, but the handler type differs (FastCGI vs suPHP).
• Handler mismatches can invalidate opcode caches, requiring a manual restart of PHP‑FPM.

Questions

1. When both a MultiPHP Manager setting and a .htaccess PHP version directive are present, which takes precedence in a CloudLinux‑enabled cPanel shared hosting environment?
2. Does the handler type specified in the .htaccess (e.g., AddHandler php8.2‑fcgid .php) override the MultiPHP Manager’s handler selection, or is the MultiPHP Manager always authoritative?
3. Are there any documented scenarios where a per‑user .htaccess override is ignored because the MultiPHP Manager enforces a system‑wide default for security or performance reasons?