php 4.3.9 / eZ Publish 3.9.0

Thursday 15 February 2007 11:02:16 pm

Hi Folks, I'm using centos-4.4 which comes with php-4.3.9. The eZ Publish 3.9.0's requirements tell me to use php-4.4, but that version is not available in any of the centos standard rpm repositories. As I have to be compliant with the repos, compiling php will be no solution for me.
Anyways, I tried ez publish on centos-4.4/php-4.3.9 and it works, obviously. Now I'd like to ask you about your experience. Is it ok to use that combination or will it fail in some aspects?

Regards,

Michael

Saturday 17 February 2007 10:08:07 am

Michael,

Betsy is correct in her portrayal of the eZ publish requirements.

I too have seen first hand the very same description of events surrounding my first related experience in this subject.

While you might be able to do just about anything, doesn't mean that it's a good idea.

It sure sounds like you might want to build the software you require as packages for your operating system in the absence of supported packages.

While I've not done this, compile php and build rpm of the package for the actual installation. While I opted for source base installation directly, you can build an rpm package yourself.

<i>http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-rpm1/</i>
<i>http://www.netadmintools.com/art272.html</i>
<i>http://www.google.com/search?q=building+your+own+rpm+packages&btnG=Search</i>

hth,
//kracker
<i>kmk - party ... "a party, a party we goin' to a party ..."</i>

Member since: 2001.07.13 || http://ezpedia.se7enx.com/

Tuesday 20 February 2007 4:47:53 am

Hi,

thanks for the replies, I know how to compile php and I know how to build an rpm, but it all takes longer than executing a simple

   yum update

It's not only the 10 minutes it takes to compile and install the package, it's moreover the inclusion of the distribution specific patches, the testing of the package, etc. Which may take much longer. Caring for about 10 servers I can't afford this amount of time each time a php update is available.

I may quote Johnny Hughes from http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-February/075433.html :
"The best bet is to fix the app (mk:Johnny is speaking of ez publish here) that requires php 4.4 or to find/build an RPM for php-4.4."

Apart from the question "who should fix it's package", my 2ct about the word "enterprise" ... "Enterprise (stability)" means to me: to have well tested patches and binaries installed and running. "Well tested" means to me: I don't want my customers to be obliged to test that stuff and to unintentionally become crash test dummies.

I may help ez community by providing a working php.spec, that should not be a big problem, but I can't maintain that stuff, that's my personal time problem. I may even be conviced about such an rpm (as soon as it exists) being <b>THE</b> solution for using ez publish, but how are you going to tell all the centos and RHEL users to be obliged to use another php rpm as soon as they want to use that particular cms? How are you convincing them to move away from their standard repositories and to risk things? That should be the more hairy part...

IMHO the real solution would be to identify the real reasons for having 4.4 as a requirement (bug#1: "loops under condition xy", solved as of 4.4, bug #2: "if statement not evaluating correctly", solved as of 4.4, ...). What I could contribute as a complimentary information is to identify which of these bug fixes have been backported to the php rpm binary as provided by RHEL. Examples from the php change log from RHEL:

* Di Sep 26 2006 Joe Orton <jorton@redhat.com> 4.3.9-3.20

- add fix for php_error varargs use (#199947)

* Sa Sep 16 2006 Joe Orton <jorton@redhat.com> 4.3.9-3.17

- add security fix from upstream: CVE-2006-4484
- add metaphone() fix (#205714)

Sounds a bit as "much work", but imagine the opportunity for ez publish to be able to be installed on numerous RHEL installations!

Regards,
Michael

Tuesday 20 February 2007 7:00:16 am

To read more on it you can also read the PHP 4.4. Release Announcement:
http://php.net/releases/4_4_0.php

From dr: running eZ Publish 3.7+ on PHP 4.3.x could potentially lead to data corruption.

eZ Online Editor 5: http://projects.ez.no/ezoe || eZJSCore (Ajax): http://projects.ez.no/ezjscore || eZ Publish EE http://ez.no/eZPublish/eZ-Publish-Enterprise-Subscription
@: http://twitter.com/andrerom

Wednesday 21 February 2007 6:00:27 am

ok, agreed, it's clear that the "Reference Bug" can't be backported. Well, sad, but I have to be creative in searching for another solution.
Anyways, thanks for providing the hints, I can't run into danger of losing data, just because ez publish doesn't fit into my installation(s), so this thread was useful to me anyways.
Have a good time
Michael

Tuesday 06 March 2007 2:12:18 am

I'm not (anymore) averse to using debian. As soon as somebody can recommend me system x or system y I'll consider taking it as a base as soon as it may be used as a XenU guest on a x86_64 machine. I already got a debian system running, I'll think about it, but I'm still open for more suggestions. Folks, what do you use?
Cheers - Michael

Tuesday 06 March 2007 5:03:18 am

Ah bon, c'est intéressant, je vais le régarder! Merci!

Friday 09 March 2007 3:13:10 am

wow, that's perfect - thanks for the link!
I hope, someone will include a lib64 patch for x86_64 some time. I haven't tried the above link, but I'm in doubt that the thing will compile. It's quite weird, even the plain tar.gz doesn't compile on my x86_64 because of lib64 issues (the config.m4 files aren't prepared).
Greetings
Michael

Saturday 10 March 2007 10:52:58 am

While I do appreciate Denis Zatsarinny's contribution.

I urge users not arbitrarily use another's (binary or otherwise) packages (so lightly).
I would not use them in production. And for as little time as it takes to build your own ...

I urge users to use tools to build the sources themselves rather than trust random packages.

It's not that hard to build the source and it is much more effective and secure.

<i>//kracker

CHAMILLIONAIRE - Ridin ...</i>

Member since: 2001.07.13 || http://ezpedia.se7enx.com/

Sunday 11 March 2007 3:54:04 am

I did hear in passing from Zurgutt that he had x86_64 binaries of some form for php 4.4.x at the end of last week via #ezpublish irc (on freenode.net). Perhaps, if this is what your looking for specifically ...

One might be able to comment offhand on how to overcome the breakdowns experienced by others in the community and reach this goal.

<i>//kracker

Kottonmouth Kings - Life Rolls On</i>

Member since: 2001.07.13 || http://ezpedia.se7enx.com/