4.x vs. 5.x help

All of the sites on our DA machines are managed so we do not allow anyone access to ftp or ssh (or DA). A few of our DA machines just have one site on them. We do not use dual processor machines. Our sites are PHP/MySQL, but no real traffic.

With the above in mind, is there any advantage to using 5.x over 4.x?

I keep the systems patched, upgrade ports, etc., but I really do not pay attention to the new features that get added from one version of FreeBSD to the next so I can't give myself an arguement as to why I should try to get 5.3 to work when I know 4.10 will.

If anyone has comments, I would appreciate them.

The only reason would be that 4.x will slowly lose support from the FreeBSD team.

PHP5 has a number of new functions available. I think the biggest difference though is its significantly improved handling of objects to better support OO programming.

Before considering a move, I recommend checking out whether your scripts will run okay as currently written or will they need some code tweaking. $HTTP_*_VARS is off by default. If your scripts are still using these, you'll have to intentionally turn it on or mod the code. If you're using any functions which are no longer supported, this will need to be changed too. You may see some errors in OO code which works perfectly fine under PHP4. For example, in PHP4 you can instantiate an object and have the class defined later in the code. Under PHP5, the class needs to be defined above it.

FreeBSD, not PHP, but thanks.

macro_mote said:

PHP5 has a number of new functions available. I think the biggest difference though is its significantly improved handling of objects to better support OO programming.

Before considering a move, I recommend checking out whether your scripts will run okay as currently written or will they need some code tweaking. $HTTP_*_VARS is off by default. If your scripts are still using these, you'll have to intentionally turn it on or mod the code. If you're using any functions which are no longer supported, this will need to be changed too. You may see some errors in OO code which works perfectly fine under PHP4. For example, in PHP4 you can instantiate an object and have the class defined later in the code. Under PHP5, the class needs to be defined above it.

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If things are running good stick with 4.x for now, the biggest difference is proper SMP support and better threading, and UFS2. Other then that the other improvements are a bunch of minor improvements which make things nicer but not essential. If your hardware is old like a pentium 3 class machine or below then 4.x is usually the better choice.

I have 5 single xeon 2.4 machines with scsi drives that are just sitting and I need to install either 4.x or 5.x on them. If these are mysql/php intensive, will the better threading in 5.x make that a better decision than going with 4.10 or 4.11 in a few weeks? Obviously SMP does not matter in this case.

Well, I'd just install 5.x on those servers then, saves you a lot problems when you have to upgrade from 4.x to 5.x in the near future

FreeBSD, not PHP, but thanks.

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Ooops, sorry. I had another window open on a php forum at the same time. When I read yours, I missed it was posted under FreeBSD.