Topic: changing PHP version : what are the risks ?

[janet]

jibe

Studiying how to manage the updates with webtatic-el5, I see, janet, that your method described here lets some garbage in php-pear :
yum --enablerepo=webtatic-el5 check-update php*

No I did not say that (php*), I said
Then run the php 5.3.27 yum update
yum update --enablerepo=webtatic-el5 php

ie just upgrade existing php package & any required dependencies will also be installed.
By saying php* you are instructing that all php-something packages will be installed/upgraded, which as you say let's in some "rubbish".

Generally speaking if you need newer versions of packages or additional packages to satisfy dependency issues, that is OK to do, I would just say do not upgrade everything as you will likely run into problems somewhere.
SME server is a set of tightly integrated packages that are designed to work together, the more changes you make from "standard" the more risk there is that something will break.

[jibe]

Yes, I understand and agree with all that. More : your last sentence was the reason why I initiated this post !

However, when you only upgrade php (and not php*), dependencies will be also installed/updated. So, you have those packages changed :
php.i386                                  5.3.28-2.w5
php-cli.i386                              5.3.28-2.w5
php-common.i386                      5.3.28-2.w5
php-devel.i386                          5.3.28-2.w5
php-gd.i386                              5.3.28-2.w5
php-imap.i386                           5.3.28-2.w5
php-ldap.i386                            5.3.28-2.w5
php-mbstring.i386                      5.3.28-2.w5
php-mysql.i386                          5.3.28-2.w5
php-pdo.i386                             5.3.28-2.w5

So, later, you could have some update on anyone of these. So, if I'm not wrong, we will have to check for updates not only the php package, but also all of them. This is the reason of my php* in my check-update.

Anyway, even without the joker "*", the result is almost the same :

Code: [Select]

yum --enablerepo=webtatic-el5 check-update php
[...}
Obsoleting Packages
php-pear.noarch                           1:1.9.4-1.w5              webtatic-el5
    php-pear-XML-Util.noarch              1.1.4-3.el5               installed   

So, I'm asking what is the best : leave those packages as is even if they are obsolete with the new version of PHP, or update them ?

In the first case, it's risky because those packages are not done to work together with the new installed PHP, in the second case it's risky because it's more packages changed and not done to work with standard packages on SME...

What is the less risky ???

[janet]

jibe

What is the less risky ???

I thought I answered that, make the least number of changes possible compared to a standard sme server.

In particular re upgrading php from webtatic, then only change the packages that php requires as dependencies, & those were the ones shown in my original post.
My testing did not show issues with php-pear etc, maybe your server is configured differently &/or has other packages installed that require php-pear etc etc.

[jibe]

I thought I answered that

Yes, you did ! I was just not sure that you considered that keeping an old library that is obsolete with the new version of PHP could also be risky...

You're very right when you say that we must do as few changes as possible, and it's what I do (and advice) generally. But in another hand, I'm still afraid that, in this case, it's just doing things by halves and that it could be dangerous...

My testing did not show issues with php-pear etc, maybe your server is configured differently &/or has other packages installed that require php-pear etc etc.

Yes, I did not paid attention, but I have not that on others servers... Probably, it's just because I made a lot of tests and trials on this one...

So, finally, it's probably a useless question... sorry about that 

[stephdl]

Do not apologize too much on this post, if is see the comment 18 of bug 7613 redhat has released an update against some flaw in php. The update is available in centos, but not for sme, probably a question of days, or weeks

It is a good new

[jibe]

Hi,

Yes, Stephane, but :
1 - "probably a question of days, or weeks"... if all goes well. But it could be longer, or not work as well as expected, or work for owncloud 5 and no more for owncloud 6 when it will not be anymore a beta version. So, it's good to have another solution.

2 - The problem of the version of PHP is recurrent on SME. Now, with version 5, it is less critical than with SME 7x, but there has always been a lot of people asking how to change the PHP version on SME. I initiated this post because I have a special need now, but also because what is discussed here can be useful for others cases

[stephdl]

please see see http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=7613#c21 it seems that we have made a mistake about the right version of php package but updates are inside.

For the late in php version ,the fault is on the redhat side, not really on SME side, however we need to get sooner sme9 but the team in bugzilla is really thin, and we need Troubleshooters, with the hope that a day they become developers

[jibe]

(self-censored : useless question)