PHP 4 end of life announcement

[ShaneK]

In light of the news that php 4 will no longer be supported at the end of the year, I was wondering if there is a date cpanel plans on making the move to PHP5? I have alot of customers to let know about this, and I'd like to give them plenty of time to make the proper coding adjustments.

Thanks!

 

[Spiral]

I don't understand the question because Cpanel has
fully supported PHP 5 for several years now ....

What do you mean "when cpanel plans on making the move to PHP5"?

 

[ShaneK]

I mean when will cpanel no longer support php4 basically, 5 will become the default and 4 will no longer be included as an option etc etc.

 

[Spiral]

Now said that way, your question makes a lot more sense!

Your first post sounded like you were asking when you could upgrade to PHP 5 :D

 

[ShaneK]

hehe more like when will I be forced to upgrade.. I've wanted to do it for a long time.. but feared clients broken scripts and the subsequent whining. At least now with php4 dieing I get to have a damn good reason to push the issue.

Just wondered what kind of time line cpanel is looking at for removing it entirely also.

 

[Spiral]

hehe more like when will I be forced to upgrade.. I've wanted to do it for a long time.. but feared clients broken scripts and the subsequent whining. At least now with php4 dieing I get to have a damn good reason to push the issue.

Just wondered what kind of time line cpanel is looking at for removing it entirely also.

You don't need to worry about client broken scripts ....

I have personally been using PHP 5 since it's earliest Beta release 4 years ago
and have had it in full production use for nearly 3 years and after working
with hundred of programs on thousands of servers for tens of thousands
of clients in all this time, I can tell you first hand that you don't have
much to worry about upgrading to PHP 5.

The reports of compatibility issues of PHP 4 to PHP 5 are over inflated
and most of those reports are just flat wrong as nearly every program
out there old or new will work perfectly on PHP 5 without modification.

Some of the confusion about that was probably cast down from people
confusing MySQL 5 with PHP 5. Unlike PHP 5, which doesn't have really
any major compatiblity issues, MySQL does in fact have some significant
issues in it's newest versions which requires program modifications.

If you need any help getting updated to the present though, I offer
you my hand in assistance.

 

[cPanelDavidG]

Traditionally, we support software until either there's a lack of customer demand for it or it reaches EOL and security fixes are no longer being applied to it. While PHP 4 technically reaches EOL on Dec 31, 2007 - patches for significant issues will continue to be released until 8/8/8. I would recommend migrating to 5 before 4 reaches EOL (however even the quasi-ambitious GoPHP5.org doesn't recommend migrating until after 4 reaches EOL).

When cPanel 11 reaches stage 2, it will be easy to run PHP 4 and 5 side-by-side. I'd recommend taking advantage of this to offer your customers a transitional environment to migrate from PHP 4 to 5 (it's really not as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be). Perhaps slightly before PHP 4 reaches EOL, only support PHP 5 and if no one hollars at you, just stick with PHP 5.

Just think, soon we'll be talking about running PHP 5 and 6 side-by-side... *hears collective moan of sysAdmins everywhere* :D.

 

[Spiral]

Just think, soon we'll be talking about running PHP 5 and 6 side-by-side... *hears collective moan of sysAdmins everywhere* :D.

I got a little bit of advanced bad news in that department ...

While PHP 5 is (contrary to what many people wrongfully thought) is actually
pretty much 100% backwards compatible to PHP 4 without problems whatsoever,
the same cannot be said regarding PHP 6 with PHP 5.

The early pre-releases of PHP 6 show enough significant non-backwards changes
to indicate that most programs will have to be significantly overhauled before
being compatible to the new PHP 6 coming out soon.

 

[cPanelDavidG]

I got a little bit of advanced bad news in that department ...

While PHP 5 is (contrary to what many people wrongfully thought) is actually
pretty much 100% backwards compatible to PHP 4 without problems whatsoever,
the same cannot be said regarding PHP 6 with PHP 5.

The early pre-releases of PHP 6 show enough significant non-backwards changes
to indicate that most programs will have to be significantly overhauled before
being compatible to the new PHP 6 coming out soon.

Agreed. While PHP 6 hopes to be better from a security/sysAdmin standpoint, it surely will not be as painless as the 4 to 5 migration. While PHP 6 requires things be done in a way sysAdmins and professional PHP coders would agree is the proper way to do things, it's sacrificing much backwards compatibility in the process. Almost reminds me of another language about 6 years ago... not naming names .

This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your perspective. Good because it'll prevent poorly assembled PHP code from functioning (yay for possible "security"). Bad because I know many developers use PHP as a quick patch to get something working quickly and may not want to spend the time to re-code their custom applications - and instead focus their efforts in lobbying web hosts like yourselves for continuing PHP 5 support.