[BlueOnyx:27135] Re: mcrypt on php 7.0 - 5210r

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Richard,

> I am battling on with the server that required JSON on php 5.6 , which 
> was not possible.

I'm currently in the same boat: Migrated a ton of customer Vsites off 
5209R onto 5211R. And of course there are three Vsites that still used 
PHP-5.6 and one that even refused to run on anything more modern than 
PHP-5.4.

> I think we can get it up to PHP 7.0 after a working through some 
> options. However, I need MCRYPT enabled, i see is enabled for 7.4 but 
> not any other PHP 7 version on the 5210r
> 
> Is there away we can enable it for 7.0 ?
> I cannot go any higher than 7.0 as we have some modules that the PHP is 
> encoded ( IONCUBE )   to version 7.0 and no way to get any new updates 
> for those modules.
Yeah:

[root at 5210r ~]# /home/solarspeed/php-7.0/bin/php -m|grep mcry
[root at 5210r ~]# /home/solarspeed/php-7.1/bin/php -m|grep mcry
[root at 5210r ~]# /home/solarspeed/php-7.2/bin/php -m|grep mcry
[root at 5210r ~]# /home/solarspeed/php-7.3/bin/php -m|grep mcry
[root at 5210r ~]# /home/solarspeed/php-7.4/bin/php -m|grep mcry
mcrypt

So mcrypt is only in the PHP starting PHP-7.4 for 5210R and 5211R. It 
should be noted that the mcrypt extension was included directly in PHP 
5.4 through PHP 7.1. It was removed from PHP 7.2 and moved to an 
unofficial PECL extension because the mcrypt library itself is no longer 
maintained. It was replaced by "libsodium".

When I try to install it via Pecl on a 5210R for PHP-7.0 I get this:

[root at 5210r ~]# /home/solarspeed/php-7.0/bin/pecl install mcrypt
WARNING: channel "pecl.php.net" has updated its protocols, use "pecl 
channel-update pecl.php.net" to update
pecl/mcrypt requires PHP (version >= 7.2.0, version <= 8.4.0, excluded 
versions: 8.4.0), installed version is 7.0.33
No valid packages found
install failed

It *might* be possible to grab one of the really ancient releases of 
mcrypt from here https://pecl.php.net/package/mcrypt and then try to 
compile it against PHP-7.0. Maybe give that a try?

What I'm currently doing for my antiquated Vsites that need PHP versions 
that aren't available? I keep one VPS on 5209R. I move the few 
problematic Vsites onto that and give them the PHP version that makes 
them happy. Then I give them a web server alias like <customer>.smd.net 
and untick "Web Server Alias redirects". Therefore the Vsite is then 
also available via my new alias <customer>.smd.net

On the 5211R I have the proper Import of the Vsite with all users and 
that will host their email services. But for the webpages I tick 
"Redirect/Proxy Website", select "Redirect Type" proxy and specify as 
URL the HTTP (not HTTPS!) URL of the Alias: http://<customer>.smd.net

That way: The clients get their emails on the modern server (Postfix, 
yay!) and the webpages are proxied to the old 5209R. Which itself gets 
its firewall configured that it only accepts HTTP requests from my 
office IP and from the new server that makes the proxy requests.

That at least buys some time to work out an upgrade path or to 
cattle-prod the clients to finally modernize their antiquated 
prehistoric Vsites.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber