[BlueOnyx:20602] BlueOnyx 5209R: PHP and MariaDB changes and updates

[Michael Stauber]

Hi all,

You might have seen the prior discussion about this topic:

- [BlueOnyx:20592] how to downgrade mariadb 10 to 5.5 or MYSQL?

I'm top posting here to give the gist of it and to outline what I just
did to address the minor compatibility issue between PHP and MariaDB-10.1.

The full details are outlined here:

http://www.blueonyx.it/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=216&cntnt01origid=67&cntnt01pagelimit=4&cntnt01returnid=54

The short version:
===================

I just published a set of YUM updates for BlueOnyx 5209R which replaced
the RPM "php-mysql" with "php-mysqlnd".

MySQL-nd is an alternative and more modern method to allow PHP to
connect to MySQL/MariaDB. Instead of compiling PHP against a fixed
MySQL/MariaDB version (and using the drivers MySQL/MariaDB has) MySQL-nd
uses drivers that are included in PHP.

These are less dependent on the exact MariaDB version and therefore make
it easier to replace MariaDB with older or newer versions.

*** You do *not* need to change anything in your existing PHP scripts
that connect to MariaDB. ***

This update is seamless and the existing connection methods such as ...

- mysql
- mysqli
- pdo_mysql
- pdo_mysqli

... all continue to work the same way as before. They simply use the
newer "driver" for that which now comes with the RPM "php-mysqlnd" that
is directly provided out of the CentOS 7 YUM repository.

Shop PHP packages:
===================

I'm currently rebuilding the latest version of all PHP branches for
5209R to make use of MySQL-nd as well:

- PHP-7.1.1
- PHP-7.0.15
- PHP-5.6.30
- PHP-5.4.45

These updated PHP PKGs that use MySQL-nd should become available within
the next couple of hours.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber