prevent cpanel/whm from automatically updating php

Question

I'd like to be sure that cpanel/WHM is definitely NOT going to automatically update my PHP to 5.3 (it will cause all sorts of errors for legacy code).

So, please let me know where I should look (either in WHM control panel or via SSH) in order to satisfy myself that PHP definitely won't get upgraded to 5.3 without my say-so?

Answer 1

I might be wrong, But I don't think cPanel/WHM update the PHP verison on its own. It's the server owner who updates the PHP version to a new one.

If you are using web hosting you should ask your web hoster not to update PHP for that server. Webhosters that cares about customers usually update PHP step by step and leavs the old version of the PHP too, so you can choose playing with Apache Handlers which PHP version to use.

For instance you could set the files with ".php5" extension to be processed by PHP 5.3, while all the files with standard ".php" extension to be processed by the old version of PHP. In the .htaccess you can write:

#Makes PHP5.3 to process only .php5 extension file
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php5

#Makes PHP4 to process all .php file
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php4 .php

Obviously the application/x-httpd-php4 and application/x-httpd-php5 has to be created by the webhoster that installe both PHP versions.

This is an example of a webhoster who cares www.qualityhostonline.com about their customers as explained above and they provide what I explained. Unfortunately many cheap webhosters don't take the time to do it, so they update PHP all of a sudden, and the next day they send you an email saying: "Oh we updated PHP, enjoy!" and you might get all bunch of errors in your apps with hunderds of customer calling you screaming.

Answer 2

cPanel/WHM will only update PHP if you tell it to do so via EasyApache. PHP is not automatically updated in a cPanel/WHM environment.