Are you still using PHP 5.x? Why?
- Thread starter Chris D
- Start date
sbj
Well-known member
I'd expect that too, but it would be only expectation. As long as you guys don't force the devs to use 7.x or higher, the safe way is "don't touch a running system".
And from what I have seen in this thread, there were problems with a lot of addons but it seems the problems disappeared in most cases, but still not sure if it is safe enough.
Kinda ironic, isn't it? Uncomfortable using a custom repo (of which there are some which are just the de-facto standard and have the highest reputations) but perfectly comfortable using extremely outdated and potentially insecure software (though I appreciate most default repos are likely tested for security and stability).
Even so, it's a poor excuse. For CentOS I'd highly recommend centminmod by @eva2000 anyway.
There's an easy way to be sure. Clone your live site and run it locally or on a test server running PHP 7. Of course right now you're open to the opposite of the problem too. It's not uncommon for devs to sometimes get carried away and add code that is only supported by newer PHP versions, unintentionally.
There's a bit of effort required to test if your site is fully PHP 7.0 compatible but the performance improvements alone are well worth it.
Lukas W.
Well-known member
I do believe that a big portion just doesn't bother investing any work if there's "no reason" why they should. I wouldn't even be surprised if there's a large portion of forum owners that has no idea what php even is, or that there are newer versions available than the one they have. Sometimes you just have to force people to become active for their own good.
andybond
Well-known member
Well , yes and no.
Its ironic and some people do not know better. I am a wintel admin. When I first installed my CentOS with apache I hadnt the faintest idea what I was doing. The umpteen million version of php, addons and yum this and that was a steep learning curve.
For the reasons above , I would second this. Its fantastic. All the legwork is done for you. Assuming you can type centmin and then exit and read the destructions on the update you are laughing. Even a lowly Wintel admin can manage a server!
Lukas W.
Well-known member
You might want to consider giving people a bright red warning on the top of their ACP that they're not running php7 or higher yet, and that you are about to drop support for it in the future. Give 'em some information on what that fuss is all about, how they might be able to upgrade, and why they should upgrade, and make disabling the notification hard by only allowing that through the config.php file, and people will start becoming active.
I quite like that idea though we do already display a warning in 2.0 when upgrading which reflects the new upcoming minimum. I suspect we should change it in 2.1 to do the same for any version below 7.0 though it's not a done deal that we'd be requiring a specific 7.x version, yet, it really depends how much the adoption improves:
DragonByte Tech
Well-known member
And thus the blanket PHP 5.6 minimum requirement of DBTech addons was born.
Turns out, 5.4 doesn't support array for
const variables. Who knew. Minor pushback the first week, and the occasional unicorn, but largely no problem Fillip
Kevin
Well-known member
Currently 5.6 but only because when I tried switching to 7.2 I got a 500 error generated when trying to access the XF install and I haven't tracked down why yet (and, yes, plugins were disabled in config file). I suspect I've got a module or something else installed with the 5.6 build that I missed with the 7.2 build.
As a bit of further encouragement for people to start upgrading their PHP, there's an important new feature coming in XF 2.1 which, unfortunately, requires PHP 7.0 or above. The rest of the software will work on PHP 5.6, but this one feature can only be enabled in options if you're using PHP 7.x.
This is unfortunate and something we attempted to avoid but it was the lesser of two evils. The feature is partly powered by a library which requires PHP 7.0 or above. They have an older version which is compatible with PHP 5.6 but the really frustrating thing is that it wasn't compatible with PHP 7.2
I think it's the right thing to do to block PHP 5.6 in this instance rather than blocking PHP 7.2.
This is unfortunate and something we attempted to avoid but it was the lesser of two evils. The feature is partly powered by a library which requires PHP 7.0 or above. They have an older version which is compatible with PHP 5.6 but the really frustrating thing is that it wasn't compatible with PHP 7.2
I think it's the right thing to do to block PHP 5.6 in this instance rather than blocking PHP 7.2.
Kevin
Well-known member
Currently 5.6 but only because when I tried switching to 7.2 I got a 500 error generated when trying to access the XF install and I haven't tracked down why yet (and, yes, plugins were disabled in config file). I suspect I've got a module or something else installed with the 5.6 build that I missed with the 7.2 build.
.... and there's my motivation to figure out what the problem is.As a bit of further encouragement for people to start upgrading their PHP, there's an important new feature coming in XF 2.1 which, unfortunately, requires PHP 7.0 or above. The rest of the software will work on PHP 5.6, but this one feature can only be enabled in options if you're using PHP 7.x.
This is unfortunate and something we attempted to avoid but it was the lesser of two evils. The feature is partly powered by a library which requires PHP 7.0 or above. They have an older version which is compatible with PHP 5.6 but the really frustrating thing is that it wasn't compatible with PHP 7.2
Once you have PHP 7.2 running, try uploading and running the XenForo requirements script first. That will rule out any obvious dependency issues. Also try loading the page with debug mode enabled in case that exposes the error in more detail (though honestly if it's an ISE then often they'll happen before XF is even involved). If all else fails, 500 errors/ISEs are usually logged somewhere. Often the challenge is finding where it is logged more so than actually fixing the problem.
By the way, although these benchmarks aren't XF specific, in case you needed actual evidence that PHP 7.x is faster than PHP 5.6 then check this out:
https://community.centminmod.com/th...7-0-26-vs-5-6-32-benchmarks.13590/#post-57672
Credit to @eva2000 of course.
It's a no brainer.
https://community.centminmod.com/th...7-0-26-vs-5-6-32-benchmarks.13590/#post-57672
Credit to @eva2000 of course.
It's a no brainer.
sbj
Well-known member
It is not the effort part the problem (although it can scarry newbies like me), but more so the question if developer x will support sufficiently when there is a problem with his code. Cause in many cases it is difficult to get reliable support, which meant "don't break a running system".
I like @katsulynx idea where in ACP it displays that we are not running php 7 or newer. My addition to that would be to display this warning specially in debug more (maybe make debug mode required PHP7 or more), so you remind developers to upgrade their code which would help all forum owners to upgrade their system without worrying about addons.
To be honest I have not encountered one XF specific case where this happened (other than in the early stages of XF). BUT...
UNTIL NOW
That changes everything. Holy ****, this sounds exciting. Is there a loose timeframe for when it will happen? So how much time is left for us to upgrade to 7? Days, weeks, months? As this changes everything I better get going.
I don't want to say too much, but it's probably important (for you) to note that the particular feature I'm talking about, its suggestion thread doesn't appear to have been liked or commented on by you, directly. So, who knows, maybe it's not something you'll actually find useful.
So, yeah, I don't want to overstate it. I think it's a cool feature, and I think most people will but who wants to get to release day and find out they can't use it because they're not running PHP 7.0 or above? I'm sure no one.
If not for the promise of this new feature, at the very least do it for the pretty amazing performance increase:
So, yeah, I don't want to overstate it. I think it's a cool feature, and I think most people will but who wants to get to release day and find out they can't use it because they're not running PHP 7.0 or above? I'm sure no one.
If not for the promise of this new feature, at the very least do it for the pretty amazing performance increase:
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