What version of PHP are you using?

[smtalk]

Hello,

As I saw http://www.gophp5.org page I thought how many of us are using PHP 5 and PHP 4. I make a poll for that. Thank you for your votes.

 

[sHuKKo]

why fix it if it ain't broke?
like apache 1.3.x?

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IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT - "Any attempt to improve on a system that already works is pointless and may even be detrimental. Originated in the United States in the twentieth century. Government official Bert Lance (1931- ) was quoted in the May 1977 issue of 'Nation's Business' as saying, 'If it ain't broke don't fix it.' Lance's advice, according to William Safire, 'has become a source of inspiration to anti-activists.'." From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" (1996) by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).
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[l0rdphi1]

why fix it if it ain't broke?
like apache 1.3.x?

Because essentially by not upgrading, scripts that take advantage of PHP 5's full potential are broken.

It's not a clear comparison to Apache IMHO.

Phil

 

[hehachris]

So they are forcing us to break things?!

 

[sHuKKo]

Because essentially by not upgrading, scripts that take advantage of PHP 5's full potential are broken.

It's not a clear comparison to Apache IMHO.

Phil

Among all my 2000+ hosting clients only 1 till today wants php5 and said it's because of some extra new php function which indeed can be achived with php4 with some other class.
anyway when people demand it I will provide it.

 

[l0rdphi1]

So they are forcing us to break things?!

If you are referring to backward incompatible changes, there are a very limited number of backward incompatible changes, and if you examine each, there's even fewer that impact web scripts. See http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.incompatible.php

Of course, there's still going to be issues. I think there's just fewer than it may seem.

Phil

 

[l0rdphi1]

Among all my 2000+ hosting clients only 1 till today wants php5 and said it's because of some extra new php function which indeed can be achived with php4 with some other class.
anyway when people demand it I will provide it.

I'm not suggesting you go out of your way and upgrade immediately. I definitely acknowledge an upgrade doesn't make sense if no users are asking for it.

However, do note that this is part of the "dangerous cycle" the GoPHP5 initiative is trying to break out of: developers can't fully use PHP 5 until hosts widely support it, yet hosts won't upgrade because developers don't require it.

I think GoPHP5 is on the right tack; without a push, the adoption rate for PHP 5 (and forthcoming PHP 6) will continue to be very poor.

Phil

 

[nobaloney]

without a push, the adoption rate for PHP 5 (and forthcoming PHP 6) will continue to be very poor.

Why is this a bad thing?

When developers stop developing PHP4; especially stop doing bug fixes and fixes for exploits, then admins will schedule updates.

Jeff

 

[freshmint]

Why is this a bad thing?

When developers stop developing PHP4; especially stop doing bug fixes and fixes for exploits, then admins will schedule updates.

Jeff

I heard there was a discussion on the php official mailing list regarding that, and it seems they'll stop providing bug fixes for php4 soon. Well, at least that's what I heard... there was a poll and no votes against it at the time I heard.

 

[smtalk]

From php.net:
PHP 4 end of life announcement

[13-Jul-2007] Today it is exactly three years ago since PHP 5 has been released. In those three years it has seen many improvements over PHP 4. PHP 5 is fast, stable & production-ready and as PHP 6 is on the way, PHP 4 will be discontinued.

The PHP development team hereby announces that support for PHP 4 will continue until the end of this year only. After 2007-12-31 there will be no more releases of PHP 4.4. We will continue to make critical security fixes available on a case-by-case basis until 2008-08-08. Please use the rest of this year to make your application suitable to run on PHP 5.

For documentation on migration for PHP 4 to PHP 5, we would like to point you to our migration guide. There is additional information available in the PHP 5.0 to PHP 5.1 and PHP 5.1 to PHP 5.2 migration guides as well.

 

[Charles2]

My host currently runs PHP4 but I really don't care to much about PHP5 even though there are more things but the programs that I run now don't really need PHP5 so why even bother with upgrading. Now that PHP4 has an End of Life then I want to be ahead of the game and already be ready for when my host does upgrade. That means I need to check of the current apps that I run will work on PHP5.

 

[nobaloney]

I guess it's time for a discussion on how DA can best handle the updates.

Should all new installs come with PHP5?

Should old installs at some point be updated to PHP5 automatically?

Should a script be available to do it?

Should we write all our clients and let them know we'll soon be switching?

Any comments?

Jeff

 

[DirectAdmin Support]

We'll be moving to the custombuild script over time. For each progressive release, we'll make the options for installing it more prominent, so more testing is done with it (but not forced, you can still use customapache). The setup.sh merely needs to ask what options the admin wants at install time and write them to the options.conf, so really, an admin can have whatever version of anything he wishes. Dovecot will be in there as well.. I'm satisfied with how dovecot works, so will be making it an install time option pretty soon as well.

Old install updates to php 5 would be up to the admin.
If it isn't broken, and there are no security issues, then there may be no reason to.

John

 

[nobaloney]

Old install updates to php 5 would be up to the admin.
If it isn't broken, and there are no security issues, then there may be no reason to.

John, that's been my mantra forever. But since updates from PHP4 to PHP5 will need leadtime so no-one's script will break, I don't think that on this one any of us should wait until a security issue suffers, but rather start planning by the time updates stop.



Jeff

 

[hostpc.com]

I guess it's time for a discussion on how DA can best handle the updates.

Should all new installs come with PHP5?

YES!

Should old installs at some point be updated to PHP5 automatically?

Yes!

Should a script be available to do it?

YES!

Should we write all our clients and let them know we'll soon be switching?
YES!

Any comments?

Please - perfect the custombuild script to make conversions a lot easier! (push Dovecot too!)

 

[hostpc.com]

I would like to suggest that setup options be set when the intial setup.sh file is run on new servers - for each potential option. I don't care if it is nice and easy to just answer a couple questions about hostnames, etc - I'd rather have complete control over the build, including specifying php5, apache2, mysql5, dovecot, etc - rather than building to one version, then having to go BACK and upgrade that build through customapache or custombuild

 

[Charles2]

I am surprised that the option to install Apache2, PHP5, MySQL5, etc.. is not already in the setup.sh file. Since PHP4 end of life is here I think now is an even better time to get that put into the file. The sooner the better.

 

[Chrysalis]

both versions.

All servers I provide hosting on have php4 and php 5, the oldest one has 4 as primary and 5 as seondary the rest 5 as primary 4 as secondary, the oldest one will switch to 5 as primary tho before the end of the year.

With custombuild now making it reasonably easy to have both on one server I support the idea of making php5 the default before the end of the year.

I am against automically changing php4 to php5 on existing installations tho. I also think custombuild needs much more testing in production environments before it becomes the default.

 

[Techie-Micheal]

Don't change what isn't broken, sure, but what about changing what is antiquated? Think of it like this, you use something until it comes to the point where it is no longer efficient to use it. Say an old car. Sure, it still runs, but newer vehicles get better gas mileage. Therefore, it is no longer efficient to run the old car. The car served its useful life for several years, much like PHP4, and as such, PHP4 is being EOL'ed.

That all said, I'm (of course) a big fan of PHP 5.2. It is faster, has better support for OOP, making your code easier to reuse, and you have things like APC which is an opcode caching engine being written for it.

I can see the reasoning behind gophp5.org's movement, but I don't necessarily agree with it. Being the Support Team Leader of a rather large project, you have to support the largest audience possible, otherwise it is all counter-productive. Unfortunately, that means supporting PHP4 as well.

 

[@how@]

Vote (PHP5)


Wael