In what scenarios might a hosting provider restrict access to phpinfo() and how can this impact PHP development?

Hosting providers might restrict access to phpinfo() to prevent users from accessing sensitive server information or to improve security. This can impact PHP development as phpinfo() is commonly used to gather information about the server environment for debugging or optimization purposes. To work around this restriction, developers can create a custom PHP script that mimics the functionality of phpinfo() without exposing sensitive information.

<?php
// Custom phpinfo() function
function custom_phpinfo() {
    ob_start();
    phpinfo();
    $phpinfo = ob_get_clean();
    
    // Display only relevant information
    $filtered_phpinfo = strip_tags($phpinfo, '<h2><h3><table><tr><td>');
    echo $filtered_phpinfo;
}

// Call the custom phpinfo() function
custom_phpinfo();
?>