PHP - How Detect if Output Buffering is Enabled

You can access the output_buffering value in the php.ini file by doing:

var_dump(ini_get('output_buffering'));

But I think what you are looking for is ob_get_level() (or ob_get_status()):

var_dump(ob_get_level());

Returns the level of nested output buffering handlers or zero if output buffering is not active.

You can check any INI setting in PHP with the ini_get method. http://php.net/ini_get

ini_get('output_buffering');

Likewise, you can change most INI settings with ini_set:

ini_set('output_buffering', 'on');