By dcrocks on
Ver 7 requires php 5.2+, implying 5.3 is ok. But are recommended themes and modules also tested against php 5.3? Can we assume they are OK?
Ver 7 requires php 5.2+, implying 5.3 is ok. But are recommended themes and modules also tested against php 5.3? Can we assume they are OK?
Comments
Yes
This is a list of things that break backward compatibility with 5.2:
* Parameter parsing API unification will cause some functions to behave more or less strict when it comes to type juggling
* Removed the following extensions: ext/mhash (see ext/hash), ext/msql, ext/pspell (see ext/enchant), ext/sybase (see ext/sybase_ct)
* Moved the following extensions to PECL: ext/ming, ext/fbsql, ext/ncurses, ext/fdf
* Removed zend.ze1_compatibility_mode
Nothing in that list would be relevant to themes, and module developers would (should) be aware of anything that was depreciated when the 5.x branch started.
OK
I am running this test on mac OS X 10.6.2. The only extension you list I see in phpinfo is hash. No mention of zend.ze1 compatibility. The only PECL extension is for sqlite(v2). Is there another way to check on PECL extensions?
What are the implications for the hash extension availability?
ps. I applied the strict_20.patch right after install.
ps. I may have misread your reply. Should or should not the things you listed be in my PHP.
David Rocks
Don't worry!
It's not something you need to worry about.
If Drupal was "so brittle" as to break on PHP 5.3 ... you can guarantee there would be a flood of bug reports and a reasonably fast fix.
I doubt any of the changes I listed would be relevant to anything related to Drupal, but in the unlikely event a module DID break ... that would be a matter for the module developer to fix ... not you or I.
_
Actually there was a flurry of activity after php5.3 was released and there were compatibility issues. See #360605: PHP 5.3 Compatibility for more info. Moreover, the http://drupal.org/requirements page still lists drupal 5.2 as recommend and states 5.3 is not yet supported. Not sure when that will change-- I would guess for the d7 official release though.
Also, I have seen posts in the forums where users had problems with contrib due to using php5.3 so it does happen-- it's not always obvious from the errors that's the problem, but backing down to php5.2 invariably fixes the problem.
Seems OK to me.
I'm testing D7 alpha1 on 5.3.1 at the moment, nothing seems catastrophically broken. AFAIK the only issues I'm having are alpha bugs/omissions in Drupal, not language issues. Actually ... the whole test so far has been remarkably smooth and uneventful.
I was drooling for namespaces and couldn't resist the urge to upgrade. No disasters yet. Touch wood.
added note
I should add that I did need to apply the strict_20 patch to eliminate many warning messages. My current problem is that the few alternate themes I have found at drupal/themes that are supposed to work, don't. There are numerous errors and the resultant front page is unusable. If there are real 5.3 issues then I would have given up trying these. If not, then the issue is with the themes and I may try to debug. I finally found a process that allows me to recover from these failures.
David Rocks