[NBLUG/talk] php 4 vs. php 5 -- which to use? how to maintain?

[Dave Sisley]

Eric Eisenhart wrote:

>On Sat, Mar 11, 2006 at 09:09:47AM -0800, Dave Sisley wrote:
>[snip]
>  
>
>>Trouble is, the code was written in/for php 4 and it appears to have a 
>>tough time running with php 5.  I'm using an old RH9 server with php 4 
>>on it for now.
>>
>>My dilemma is that I'd like to run this app on a box running FC4 and be 
>>    
>>
>
>So, this leads me to an obvious question: why run php4 on a distro that
>doesn't really do php4 anymore?  Why not Debian or RHEL or CentOS or WBEL or
>something else that will still provide patches *and* php 4?  I only ask
>because I'm terribly lazy and it seems like anything that puts php4 on a
>distro that only does php5 will either be an ongoing hassle or will
>eventually lead to running an unpatched version of PHP...
>  
>
Eric - Your question may be obvious, but it never occurred to *me*!  I 
mention FC4 because it would be my preferred distro (all the linux boxes 
at work are redhat/fedora), but I would happily switch if what you are 
implying is true:  Do the distros you mention offer the possibility of 
pathches for php 4?  If so, that's my answer - I'm trying to just build 
a simple server that will run this app - I don't really care what distro 
it runs.  I had just assumed that ALL current distros would be using php 5.

Is there a simple source that would tell me which distros come with (& 
offer patches for) php4?

>That said, approaches worth investigating:
>1) http://www.fedoralegacy.org/
>2) some yum hackery to get php RPMs from the latest fedora that did php4
>3) rebuild from the source RPMs from #2 and install those
>4) find someplace where somebody else already built (and maintains?) php4
>   for fc4.
>
>For #1 I mean running a patched RHL9.  Not a good solution, but better than
>an unpatched RHL9.
>
>#2 might not work well, depending on how different other libraries are,
>apache, etc...
>  
>
The above is moot if I can find a better distro...

thanks for the tip!

-dave.

-- 
Dave Sisley
dsisley at sonic.net
roth-sisley.net