Hi - I'd like to use php 5.3 on my CentOS 5.5 Linode. "yum install php" put v5.1.6 on my system. Can anybody suggest the best way to upgrade to v5.3.x? Thanks!

compile it from source. If you do php --info from the command line it will give you the configure line php 5.1.6 uses which should work on 5.3 (you may need some minor modifications)

Нет! >.<
Look here, or more precisely here.
(And yes, I just heard of that place on #linode a few days ago. But a forum post about it is FIRST GOOGLE HIT for "php 5.3 centos", ffs...)

"Compile from source" is always a last resort if you want maintainability.

I wouldn't say that, I always compile from source, it's easy to update ok it takes a few minutes instead of seconds but it's not hard. It also means you can pick and choose what features you want installed.

If you're experienced, sure. But experienced *dmins wouldn't ask such question as the OP, would they?

I disagree.

I am surprised that PHP 5.3 hasn't made it into CentOS distributions. Does anyone know why?

Because that's the version RHEL is still using. The beta for RHEL 6 uses 5.3.1, so in theory when it comes out eventually CentOS 6 will have 5.3.x.

PHP 5.3 is a significant evolution of PHP with deprecated features:
http://docs.php.net/manual/en/migration ... ecated.php

This means that updating from 5.1.6 to 5.3 put your php codes at risk of breaking.

Centos is known to be a later adapter of new versions of softwares (like PHP 5.3) because it wants to be safe and reliable.
If you want a more cutting edge distro, go with Red Hat, not Centos.

You might want to get a new linode, install PHP 5.3 there and run your php codes to test them before installing php 5.3 on your main machine.

I hope you do realize CentOS is RHEL sans the branding?


As for PHP 5.3, there are plenty of third party repos that support both the latest 5.2 and 5.3 branches. Personally I use IUS.

Absolutely right on RedHat. Actually I mistyped and wanted to name Fedora instead of RedHat as a cutting edge alternative. Thanks for spotting that out.

Fedora 13, available on Linode is at PHP 5.3.1
according to
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora