Is it worth to manually compile PHP vs use deb package?

Question

For performance reason, I'm wondering if it is worth to compile php 5.3.x myself instead of using the default .deb package.

I know some PHP core developers that say that is worth to do it.

By the way most say that suhosin is almost useless and slow down php by modifying some core functions.

What are you thoughts?

Michał Šrajer · Answer 1 · 2011-10-03 14:46:38Z

up vote 2 down vote

You will gain very little performance (if any), and you will need to take care of security fixes by your own.

Always use software from official repository, unless you really, really have a good reason to do otherwise.

answered Oct 3 '11 at 14:46

	+1 Doesn't sound like there's a good reason to compile from source in this case. – xofer Oct 3 '11 at 15:02
	Agreed. I'd only consider it if I needed a very new feature, or if there was some bug in the distro version that was crippling my app (and those tend to be patched by the maintainers soon enough) – SmallClanger Oct 4 '11 at 8:40

feedback

SmallClanger · Answer 2 · 2011-10-03 13:01:53Z

As with many things, It Depends(tm). There's no correct answer to this for every situation.

If you have performance concerns, do the following:

This is the only way you'll know if the extra effort is worth it.

2 Answers