PHP 4 End-Of-Life

[Yun]

I don't know maybe I got retarded, but I can't seem to find ANY topic.


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.

So, are you going to support PHP 5 as a host now?

psst: http://www.gophp5.org

[tumble]

I am already running PHP 5.2.3 and have been running PHP5 since i think about 5 months ago.

Match those with:
MYSQl 5.0.27
Apache 2.0.59
Zend engine v2.2.0.
Zend Optimizer v3.2.0.

and you got your self a kick AZZ server :)

tumble

[DarkBlood]

I got my hoster to tell this to his hoster, hopefully they'll make the switch.

[JonnyH]

We're able to switch. A custom page was made in cPanel and it lets you pick between 5 and 4.

[sep]

DirectAdmin has added PHP5 (http://files.directadmin.com/services/customapache/php-5.2.3.tar.gz) in their custom apache script, and is planning on making it a default installation option (or they said on the forums anyway), so I'm assuming that's a speed up for DA users.

[fireshark]

@tumble: Is there any particular advantage running MySQl 5.0.2.7 vs 4.1.21?

[sep]

New features of MySQL 5: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/mysql-5-0-nutshell.html

[DarkBlood]

We're able to switch. A custom page was made in cPanel and it lets you pick between 5 and 4.

Not my host's hoster, they don't even have php5 installed, that's the problem.

[Craig]

All good things come to an end :-).

[Decker]

Yun, where was that quoted from? Sounds like a host stating that rather than an official source.

Like saying Apache 1.3 is being discontinued in favour of 2, so you'd better all update your servers :confused4

[Yun]

Decker: http://www.php.net

[Decker]

Jeez I can see that causing some panic with coders and users of bespoke scripts (another y2k scenario), 4 has served well for so long and 5 still is having updates and security patching.

Don't think I'll be pushing all boxes to 5 just yet though.

[Richard]

I too will be holding off for awhile.

PHP5 has too many problems and too many scripts do not run on it.

[Yun]

I think why PHP5 isn't developed is primarily because of this:

- Developers don't want to make scripts that use the new functions in PHP5 because hosts don't want to install PHP5.
- Hosts don't want to install PHP5 because developers make scripts that are PHP4 Compatiable only

And of course, maybe it boils down to the fact that why isn't the backward compatibility more or less complete for the more commonly used functions? :p.

[Decker]

It is the case of a catch 22, until 5 is backward compatible then it's a no brainer.

[Volt.Networks]

I'm running PHP 4 but PHP 5 is supported. That way, my client's have a choice of which to use.
Things would be so much simpler if PHP5 was backwards compatible.

[DarkBlood]

I too will be holding off for awhile.

PHP5 has too many problems and too many scripts do not run on it.

MediaWiki 1.7 and above (up to 1.10) REQUIRE php5.

[Decker]

Unfortunately the amount of php5 only scripts in normal use will not push hosts (hopefully) to undermine the clients they already have (or wish to get), again think of bespoke scripts not just stock ones.

[sharednick]

What we do is we do install both. And the client decides weither he wants to use one or the other. Of course this has the result to increase support burden because the customer needs to update a .htaccess file in their home directory to decide which version of php they will use. This affects Php5 only.

We found this to be a good solution as like it have been said before, there are still too many scripts who simply aren't php5 compatible.

Now that php6 is under development, I hope we will be able to sort it all out before it comes out as it will be even less backward compatible than php5 :S And I have no doubt that within a year or two a lot of people will begin to beg for it.

[DarkBlood]

Unfortunately the amount of php5 only scripts in normal use will not push hosts (hopefully) to undermine the clients they already have (or wish to get), again think of bespoke scripts not just stock ones.

phpBB3 has some features that require php5 though. :S

[Decker]

phpBB3 has some features that require php5 though. :S

True but is that one script enough cause for hosts to inconvinience all clients using php4 only scripts, it's still a bit up in the air and as said above with v6 in the offing I'd hate to have our clients inconvinienced in another year for the same reason.

[krakjoe]

Unless you're an uber c programmer then the fact of the matter is when php4 is discontinued you will have no choice but to start using php5, that goes for server admin, hostees and programmers alike .........

[Yun]

Well, at least you have until the 8th of August 2008 to learn "uber C" programming :).

"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."

[stonerocket]

We are still using php4, but we plan to upgrade at the end of the year!


Heres an interesting site about php5, http://gophp5.org

[Richard]

Yes, some scripts only work with PHP5.

But MORE scripts wont work at all with PHP5.

[Galaxy-Hosts.com]

It would really make things simple if they came out with a backwards compatible version of PHP5 before they discontinue PHP4. Unfortunately I have a feeling they will just leave it to hosts to fight their way thru the changeover.

[krakjoe]

Yes, some scripts only work with PHP5.

But MORE scripts wont work at all with PHP5.

Show me some .....

Saying "they should make php5 backwards compatible", is a pretty stupid thing to say, it IS backwards compatible, in that no language constructs have been removed only added, and the difference in functionality is what makes it php5 if they remove it then we dont have a new version of php.

[Richard]

Show me some .....

Saying "they should make php5 backwards compatible", is a pretty stupid thing to say, it IS backwards compatible, in that no language constructs have been removed only added, and the difference in functionality is what makes it php5 if they remove it then we dont have a new version of php.

Get a VPS, install PHP5, and then install all the scripts that hosting accounts are commonly used for. The major ones like phpBB, WP, etc, yeah, they will work, but most the older free ones that people STILL use will not.

I have reports that OSTicket no longer works on PHP5, which is why they removed the download link and are recoding it from scratch. OSTicket is still a widely used support ticket system, and that is only one of the problems.

[[ih]Demetris]

We have been running php5 for quite some time and havent had any issues with incompatibilities with the script. Richard the OSTicket project i thought is dead and there is a fork called eticket which requires php5 i believe..

[krakjoe]

Get a VPS, install PHP5, and then install all the scripts that hosting accounts are commonly used for. The major ones like phpBB, WP, etc, yeah, they will work, but most the older free ones that people STILL use will not.

I have reports that OSTicket no longer works on PHP5, which is why they removed the download link and are recoding it from scratch. OSTicket is still a widely used support ticket system, and that is only one of the problems.

So whats the problem, you're proving my point for me, if a script really is widely used then it's not down to the user to worry about wether it will work with php5, it's up to the programmer to make his or her code compatible with the latest and greatest version, and it's the hostees job to just install php5, everyone is already doing what they are supposed to be doing ......

I think between now and August of next year most of all of the used scripts will be compatible and those that aren't will just have to be left behind, along with php3 ........ the bottom line is that once the programmers stop working on the codebase it's not a good idea to have the software installed on your machines, especially as they have a far superior code base .........