PHP5 upgrade schedule

[Jim]

---
This announcement IS NOT applicable to any hosting account on the following servers:

Green
Ace
Oldfield
Hendrix
---

This announcement includes very important information about our upgrades to PHP version 5. All resellers are asked to relay this information to their own clients and send out reminders in the run up to key dates as we will be doing.

In May 2006 we installed PHP v5 in a testing environment (link) in addition to the primary version 4 install. This allowed everyone to test compatibility between scripts in preparation for the upgrade to v5 as the primary in the future. Since February 2007, all new servers have had v5 as the primary install with no secondary and I'm happy to report that there have been no issues reported or compatibility problems for anyone on this PHP version.

Due to the above, we now have a set schedule for upgrading all of our shared/reseller servers to PHP version 5 as the primary version. I know many have been waiting patiently for this and some have hoped it would never happen but with PHP announcing the end of official support for PHP4 at the end of this year, its inevitable that all hosting providers (including us) will be upgrading at some point within the next 6-12 months.

We will be carrying out the upgrade to PHP5 as the primary install in 6-8 weeks time starting on 1st October 2007. We plan on carrying out the upgrades server by server over the 1-2 weeks from that date and each server announcement list will get its own addition with specific dates/times.

During the work, PHP v4 will be put into place as a secondary install but it must be remembered that this is a temporary measure and must not be relied upon. We do not have a set date for when the secondary PHP4 will be removed but it will no longer be maintained or supported after the PHP5 install so all clients need to do whatever necessary to use PHP5 (in most cases, nothing special is needed).

To confirm, if any clients are knowingly using scripts/applications that are not compatible with PHP5, please upgrade them soon to save any problems after the PHP5 upgrade. For any home made scripts (and others for that matter) we recommend testing them in PHP as guided at the link above to check all will work fine after the upgrade.

Please see the links below which provide additional detail on PHP5, script migrations, etc:

http://gophp5.org/
http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/migration5.functions.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/migrati...compatible.php
http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/...22154/fid/1150


Below are the answers to some questions already raised by clients on this topic:

Will we still be able to control the register_globals setting via a .htaccess rule in PHP5?

Yes. Although we have no plans to change this, PHP are planning to get rid of the setting in PHP6 so clients are advised to fix whatever is causing this setting to be required at some point. In addition, unless there is absolutely no way around it, we ask that this is used as a temporary measure (eg a few weeks) while scripts are fixed. By "no way around it" I refer to third party scripts that are encrypted with no update available.

Will we still be able to control the register_long_arrays setting via a .htaccess rule in PHP5?

Yes.

How long will PHP v4 be installed as the secondary version?

We have no set time line but it will be at least until the end of 2007 which is when official support for it ends. Beyond this, anyone using PHP4 does so at their own risk knowing that it may need to be removed at any time if for example a security issue comes up with no update released by the makers.

Can <x> module now be installed which is only available in PHP5?

All PHP5 installs will have the same modules compiled in as the existing PHP4 install on that server. Any other module requests should be made as a separate support request (ideally after the initial upgrade).

My self-coded scripts won't work with PHP5!

Sorry to sound harsh but in this case you will need to either fix them or replace them. It's inevitable that all hosting providers will be changing to PHP5 so there is no choice but to fix/replace the scripts or stop using them. In the same way as anyone would stuggle to find a host providing PHP3, this will soon be the case for PHP4.

I have third party scripts installed that are not compatible with PHP5 and no updates available!

If any script vendors are not yet supporting PHP5 with their releases after 3 years of being released I personally would question whether scripts from that vendor are worth using. However, if any third party scripts are in use with no compatibility for PHP5, clients need to work on changing to a different script or getting up to date info from the vendor for compatibility.

This isn't enough time to get all my scripts updated!

With PHP5 released a long time ago and us putting our PHP5 testing install in place over 1 year ago we believe this is enough time for clients to have prepared for this update. In addition, there is a further 6 weeks from today that work can be done to ensure a smooth switch.

I don't know anything about PHP - is this upgrade really that large scale?

In a word, no! We have used PHP5 on new servers for months with no reports of problems and quite a number of clients moved from PHP4 servers to PHP5 without even noticing. I think many clients will be surprised by how cross compatible the versions are and how few scripts there are reliant on one of the few functions only available in PHP4 and therefore not compatible.

I have a dedicated/VPS server - does this apply to me?

At the moment, no it does not. However, after our shared/reseller servers are done we will be making plans with a view to doing the same on dedicated/vps servers so everyone should prepare for this separate announcement. Clients here will be given the option for leaving PHP4 in place but this can only be temporary as once PHP4 is no longer supported, it is not something we will support either and clients should be changing. On request was can also upgrade to PHP5 on any client server at any time.


Feel free to let us know or reply here with any questions.

[GrahamMills]

Just to let you know that my email of the announcement did not show any of the questions, just the answers, which was a bit surralistic!

[RickDawson]

Originally Posted by GrahamMills

Just to let you know that my email of the announcement did not show any of the questions, just the answers, which was a bit surralistic!

Same here. no forum quotes are in the email.

What's the procedure people are using to test scripts?
I've not many running, but I think they should still be checked.

[lauriate]

The forum quotes work fine for me, using Thunderbird.

I have installed Apache, PHP & MySQL on my PC using xampp for testing
http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html

Regards
Andy

[polding]

There is a Clook forum post regarding php5 testing but in summary, there are two options ...

1 - rename your script filename to .php5 (eg: myscript.php5 instead of myscript.php)

OR

2 - add the following to the 'htaccess' file for the directory the script will be run from ...

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php .php4 .php3 .phtml

The above line will process all php, php4, phtml and php3 files through the php5 software instead of php4.

[Jim]

We are aware of the issues with quotes appearing in emails.

What's the procedure people are using to test scripts?
I've not many running, but I think they should still be checked.

Please see here: http://www.clook.info/forum/showthread.php?t=4893

[Jim]

I've moved some posts from this announcement to separate threads. If anyone has any questions or issues related to specific scripts, etc please open a new thread in the appropriate forum so this announcement can include information related just to our work on software upgrades.

[PaulB]

Quote:
How long will PHP v4 be installed as the secondary version?

We have no set time line but it will be at least until the end of 2007 which is when official support for it ends. Beyond this, anyone using PHP4 does so at their own risk knowing that it may need to be removed at any time if for example a security issue comes up with no update released by the makers.

Is the use of PHP4 controlled by .htaccess? If so the code for this would be useful.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by PaulB

Is the use of PHP4 controlled by .htaccess? If so the code for this would be useful.

After the upgrade PHP4 will be installed as a CGI and therefore not possible to alter settings on it via htaccess files.

[zx81]

Do we need to remove the AddHandler to specify php5 once the switch has happened, or will this still work?

[Jim]

Originally Posted by zx81

Do we need to remove the AddHandler to specify php5 once the switch has happened, or will this still work?

I believe this should be removed from the htaccess at the time or soon after the upgrade happens.

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by Jim

After the upgrade PHP4 will be installed as a CGI and therefore not possible to alter settings on it via htaccess files.

So how would we enable PHP4 on some accounts?
Must be a way, otherwise pointless it being installed as a cgi.

Thanks,

- Vince

[Jim]

Originally Posted by Vincent

So how would we enable PHP4 on some accounts?
Must be a way, otherwise pointless it being installed as a cgi.

Sorry for any confusion.

After the upgrade, the htaccess 'AddHandler' line will be used to activate PHP4 during the time its still available. However, other htaccess rules related to PHP (php_admin / php_value lines) will not apply to PHP4 and can only be used for PHP5 directives.

[Alex J]

Do we have any dates for this work?

[PaulB]

Originally Posted by Jim

We will be carrying out the upgrade to PHP5 as the primary install in 6-8 weeks time starting on 1st October 2007. We plan on carrying out the upgrades server by server over the 1-2 weeks from that date and each server announcement list will get its own addition with specific dates/times.

It would be useful to have more specific info on this now as we will have to closely monitor sites during/after the upgrade. Is it happening?