There' s also a fourth level, PHP_INI_PERDIR, for which we couldn't verify its behavior yet.
The permissions are grouped into three sections: PHP_INI_SYSTEM allows a change only directly in the php.ini file; PHP_INI_USER allows a change to be overridden by a user at runtime using additional configuration files, such as .htaccess; and PHP_INI_ALL allows changes to be made without restrictions. There's also a fourth level, PHP_INI_PERDIR, for which we couldn't verify its behavior yet.