[BlueOnyx:13864] Re: home/solarspeed/php/lib/php/20090626/ssh2.so'

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Steffan,

>>> Do you really have the ancient PHP-5.3.9 installed on that box? It's
> horribly outdated.
>>> The latest PHP-5.3 is 5.3.27 and then it got EOL'ed.
> 
> (5107)
> The version in yum is 5.3.3
> Does that mean that php is not meantained from teh box ?
> 
> I know from the past when i bought the vps pkg you said that i dont needed
> the solarspeed php 5.3
> (2011)

Gerald and I were talking about a 5106R with the Solarspeed PHP-5.3.9
installed. So this is somewhat unrelated to your questions.

A "stock" 5106R comes with PHP-5.1.6. Fully YUM updated that'll be
php-5.1.6-40.el5_9. And that PHP-5.1.6 is still receiving security
updates from "upstream" (i.e.: CentOS).

A "stock" 5107R or 5108R comes with PHP-5.3.3. Fully YUM updated that's
php-5.3.3-23.el6_4 and updates are still provided by "upstream" (either
CentOS or Scientific Linux).

Back in 2011 you asked me if you should get the PHP upgrade for your
5107R. At that time the latest PHP was still PHP-5.3.3 and I might not
even have had a PHP-5.3 PKG out for 5107R or 5108R at that time. If I'm
not mistaken, the first PHP PKGs that I released for 5107R and 5108R
were PHP-5.3.8, which I had built on 4th September 2012.

Times have changed and it is no longer 2011.

PHP-5.1 is EOL.
PHP-5.2 is EOL.
PHP-5.3 is EOL.

The current PHP versions are either PHP 5.4 (PHP-5.4.20) or PHP 5.5
(PHP-5.5.4).

Using an EOL'ed version of PHP only makes sense, if someone (like RedHat
and in turn CentOS and Scientific Linux) is still backporting critical
security fixes and makes them available in due course.

That leaves you with two choices:

a.) Stick with the OS provided "onboard" PHP that you have and receive
your PHP security updates together with the OS.

... or ...

b.) Grab the latest PHP-5.4 or PHP-5.5 from shop.blueonyx.it,
www.solarspeed.net or www.compassnetworks.com.au and get a one year
maintenance contract together with that. This allows you to install the
latest "good" PHP version that suits your needs and allows you to get
updates to newer versions whenever we release them.

That way you will always have access to a fully updated PHP version.

As far as compatability goes: When PHP-5.3 came out many older PHP
scripts refused to work on PHP-5.3 (or newer), as certain functions had
been deprecated or changed. If that's still the case and you have
scripts which don't work with modern PHP versions, then it might be time
to review and change them, or to retire those scripts and to switch to
something more modern. The "step up" from PHP-5.3 to PHP-5.4 or PHP-5.5
isn't as big as the one from PHP-5.2 to PHP-5.3 was and there are less
compatability issues. Any half way modern script should work on PHP-5.3,
5.4 or 5.5.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber