I had this command in my .htaccess file:

php_value memory_limit 256M

but there was also a custom php.ini file in the root directory
where the memory limit was set thus:

memory_limit = 64M


Which command would the server obey?
the .htaccess or the php.ini ?

.htaccess directives are read and applied on every http request.

php.ini directives are applied differently depending on how PHP is configured to run.

In CGI mode php.ini is read and applied when an instance of the PHP interpreter starts. Which is each time a <?php||<? is encountered.

If PHP is running as an Apache module, php.ini is read and applied when an instance of the webserver starts.

so the answer is Yes || No || It Depends