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I haven't been able to find any info regarding this anywhere while burying through the thousands of results I have been getting concerning php5 so here goes.

We have several FreeBSD 9.2 machines and one FreeBSD 10.0 machine all with mod_php5 (currently on version 5.4.32) installed which is the latest for that port. However, we know that 5.5 and 5.6 have been subsequently released and were wondering a few things:

  1. When is the main mod_php5 port updated to the latest versions usually?
  2. Why are the versions kept separate? Is it a question about stability?
  3. If we chose to upgrade to 5.5 using the mod_php55 port, could this create any issues with other ports that may want to have mod_php5 installed as a dependency and, if so, is there any way to prevent this other then simply waiting for the mod_php5 port to be updated to 5.5?

Thank you for your time!

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    PHP is notorious for breaking apps built on earlier versions of PHP, so they're separated by version since often times you need more than one version installed.
    – Nathan C
    Aug 28, 2014 at 17:46
  • Good to know that you can install more than one version on the system, but can't that cause some conflicts between the two versions? Granted we should only have to load the php55 module if we chose to install it and forego the php5 module but leave it installed right? Or will that cause more issues? We're not entirely sure if upgrading is a possibility until php5 "levels up" from 5.4 to 5.5
    – Mat
    Aug 29, 2014 at 12:44

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PHP 5.6.0 was released today. It wont be in the ports tree for at least a week, more likely a month.

www/mod_php5 is just a meta-port for lang/php5 with certain options enabled. The lang/php5 port is always one minor version behind the current production release (currently PHP 5.5 is considered the "current" release, so lang/php5 is still PHP 5.4). I would expect in the next month or two the versions will be rolled forward (eg lang/php5 will become PHP 5.5, and a /lang/php56 port will be created).

If you need details I'd drop the maintainer a quick e-mail. I don't see anything in the mailing lists yet.

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  • Thanks for this. I figured I would have to email him but wanted to avoid the waiting time, oh well. I just asked him and will post the answer here once I get a response for future reference in case anybody else has the same question. I've still marked your response as an accepted answer.
    – Mat
    Aug 29, 2014 at 12:40
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Here's the answer I got from the maintainer:

1.When is the main php5 port updated to the next version after its release, in this case 5.5, usually? Is it a fixed timeframe or is it based on testing of the version?

Actually since the addition of php 5.5 in the ports tree we changed the old practice, now every new major version will stay in its own directory forever. You should think about lang/php5 as lang/php54, it'll not be updated to any other major release.

2.Why are the different versions kept separate like this with the newer version being renamed instead of the opposite?

Because a lot of users complained about incompatibilities between major versions, so we decided to not having anymore an on-the-edge phpX port. This complicates php updates between major versions, but at least doesn't break current deployments.

3.If we chose to upgrade to 5.5, using the php55 port, could this create any issues with other ports that may want to have the php5 port installed as a dependency?

No, if done correctly. The port system recognize which php version you have installed and correctly depends on it.

-- Alex Dupre ([email protected])

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