After EA3 Multiple PHP 5.x versions [Case 55764]

[insertlive]

Hi,

It might be an good idea switch between different PHP versions.
Example: client can choose 5.2.11 or 5.3.
Client can choose what PHP version to use.
It's a problem after PHP 5.3 came out.
I can't update entire server because older apps break.
But some of the client's want new PHP.


Any ideas?

BR,

Risto

[cPanelDavidG]

I have renamed this thread so those skimming the forum do not assume you are requesting our current PHP Concurrency functionality (PHP 4 and PHP 5). The functionality you request is different since you are requesting support for multiple PHP 5 versions -- in this case, 5.2.x and 5.3.x.

[Eli L]

Bump for this.

I see this as a would-be useful feature.

[DomineauX]

Yeah I can see this being rather handy, especially since PHP went so wrong with the 5.3 branch.

[Spiral]

This is a VERY BAD idea!

Trying to setup multiple PHP5 versions is not recommended for a lot of technical reasons and I would absolutely avoid trying to do so.

There were some tricks you could do to run PHP 4 and PHP 5 side by side but even that one was not much recommended and caused inherent performance issues but dual PHP5 is entirely different and has even more complications and pitfalls.

If I might offer a suggestion though, for those who want to support both PHP 5.3 and PHP 5.2, you would probably have the least headaches and problems by simply opening up a brand new server with PHP 5.3 as the only PHP and then migrating those clients who wish to use the new PHP to the new PHP 5.3 server instead of attempting to deploy both PHP versions on the same server.

Deploy clients on the different servers depending on which they want.

Personally though I do not recommend anyone migrate to PHP 5.3 just yet because there are many backwards compatibility issues and most script and program authors have still not yet fully migrated their code to be compatible with PHP 5.3 so I would not be quite so quick to adopt it until at least more significant progress is made by program authors to get more compliant with the changes in the new PHP 5.3 versions.

[DomineauX]

This is a VERY BAD idea!

Respectfully asking, what major pitfalls do you see in regards to running PHP 5.2.x and 5.3.x side-by-side when running both as suphp?

[ROMB]

also PHP 5.2.x and PHP 5.3.x can work together with suphp. In this type of environment all scripts run as CGI. in any case of PHP as CGI is freedom of choice handlers, respectively the freedom to choose versions of PHP. resources use is the same, because each CGI script starts a process of PHP-cgi.
Please add support to use both 5.2 and 5.3 like 4 and 5 versions. Also fix feature to enable zend optimizer in php 4 with php 5 installed simultaneously.

[cPanelDon]

Also fix feature to enable zend optimizer in php 4 with php 5 installed simultaneously.

As a friendly reminder, please keep in mind the topic of discussion, that of multiple versions of PHP 5.x. Please be aware that suspected bugs should be reported via our ticket system to ensure proper attention, investigation, and progress tracking; please see the link in the upper-right-corner of forums, labeled Bugs.

Please also note that Zend Optimizer is not available in a compatible version for PHP 5.3, thus it cannot be installed simultaneously when using PHP 5.3; please see the following threads for reference:

• PHP 5.3 Now Available in EasyApache - Page 2 - cPanel Forums
• Zend Server released for PHP 5.3 - cPanel Forums

[Kent Brockman]

We will turn to PHP 5.3 since it is a matter of allow for a better progress.
We scheduled the migration for April ends and since January we are working together with some customers to help them update their scripts and this has been a very productive work. We are almost at 90% of compatibility for about the 190 hosted domains in less than 3 months.

[dibarra]

This is a VERY BAD idea!

Trying to setup multiple PHP5 versions is not recommended for a lot of technical reasons and I would absolutely avoid trying to do so.

There were some tricks you could do to run PHP 4 and PHP 5 side by side but even that one was not much recommended and caused inherent performance issues but dual PHP5 is entirely different and has even more complications and pitfalls.

If I might offer a suggestion though, for those who want to support both PHP 5.3 and PHP 5.2, you would probably have the least headaches and problems by simply opening up a brand new server with PHP 5.3 as the only PHP and then migrating those clients who wish to use the new PHP to the new PHP 5.3 server instead of attempting to deploy both PHP versions on the same server.

Deploy clients on the different servers depending on which they want.

Personally though I do not recommend anyone migrate to PHP 5.3 just yet because there are many backwards compatibility issues and most script and program authors have still not yet fully migrated their code to be compatible with PHP 5.3 so I would not be quite so quick to adopt it until at least more significant progress is made by program authors to get more compliant with the changes in the new PHP 5.3 versions.

There are none of the issues you describe for people who run suPHP. It's as simple as having the suPHP binary launch a PHP process from a different directory. In fact, it only takes about two or three lines in php.conf/suphp.conf to enable this. Doing it manually is trivial.

The issue is that there's no way for EA to do this- it only offers 4 or 5, not 4 or 5.x or 5.x, etc. I'd really like to see if this can be included in the next release of EA, so builds can be automated (and we can kick out PHP4, since there's no more updates to it anyway.)

[DomineauX]

There are none of the issues you describe for people who run suPHP. It's as simple as having the suPHP binary launch a PHP process from a different directory. In fact, it only takes about two or three lines in php.conf/suphp.conf to enable this. Doing it manually is trivial.

The issue is that there's no way for EA to do this- it only offers 4 or 5, not 4 or 5.x or 5.x, etc. I'd really like to see if this can be included in the next release of EA, so builds can be automated (and we can kick out PHP4, since there's no more updates to it anyway.)

Well said and still wanted

[n8whnp]

Right now in ea3, you build a php4 version and a php5 version, the user can select which to use via add handler lines.

However php 5.3.x breaks compatibility for some sites (OS Commerce being the worst offender) so many hosts can't switch to 5.3.x without breaking customers sites.

What I would like to see is the ability to select three php versions to build:

php4
php52
php53

with versions for each and the ability to switch to each just like users can for php4 or php5.

This would help speed the support for php5.3.x which adds a lot of major features like namespaces that help secure sites to prevent hacking attacks.

Nate C

[cPanelDon]

Right now in ea3, you build a php4 version and a php5 version, the user can select which to use via add handler lines.

However php 5.3.x breaks compatibility for some sites (OS Commerce being the worst offender) so many hosts can't switch to 5.3.x without breaking customers sites.

What I would like to see is the ability to select three php versions to build:

php4
php52
php53

with versions for each and the ability to switch to each just like users can for php4 or php5.

This would help speed the support for php5.3.x which adds a lot of major features like namespaces that help secure sites to prevent hacking attacks.

Nate C

Thank you for the additional perspective and detail; to help better track support for this feature request I have merged your post into the existing feature request thread that discusses the same topic about allowing EasyApache3 (EA3) to install multiple PHP version branches within the same major PHP version, such as installing both 5.2.x and 5.3.x alongside each other.

[cPanelDon]

To help better define the direction that this feature request should take, I am curious to know if anyone else would be interested in having the requested feature allow side-by-side installation of more than 2 different versions of PHP; for example, this may mean using EasyApache to compile side-by-side installations of more than two major PHP versions or PHP version branches, such as one of each version series from PHP 4, PHP 5.2, PHP 5.3, (for a total of 3 PHP installations), and, looking forward, perhaps a stable release of a future major PHP version (e.g., for potentially up to 4 different PHP versions installed).

Here are a few areas of consideration that come to mind:

• Would this be useful to your specific business needs and hosting environments?
• Would it be excessive or simply not needed; for example, would this have added potentially unnecessary or too much complexity when taking into account the demand this may place on your technical support staff?
• Do you currently require only a maximum of two different PHP versions installed at any given time (i.e., 5.2 and 5.3)?
• Should implementation require the use of SuPHP, perhaps to help simplify the setup of and or standardize configurations?

If anyone agrees, disagrees, or has different ideas and suggestions for implementation we very much want to hear your thoughts; knowing precisely what you want (and how you want it implemented) will help to further refine our understanding and better shape the path forward.

[DomineauX]

Thanks for asking for our specific feedback on this.

Personally I am happy with the prospect of 2 versions as long as we have the flexibility to choose the versions we need such as 5.2.13 and 5.3.1 however I think making this adaptable would be the best way to meet the needs of the most customers.

For example, simply having an interface to "add another PHP build" along side of what you already have would permit us to add a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc version no matter our needs.
If requiring suPHP makes this possible then I think it would be worthwhile though I think having fcgi/dso as available choices for the default version while subsequent versions are only available as suPHP would be well within reasonable.

Either way please make sure that the facility is included to allow us to specify the required PHP modules, preferably with a text box permitting the input of a module that isn't standard within easyapache.