Unable to globally install older version of phpunit phar - php

Question

As given in https://phpunit.de/manual/current/en/installation.html#installation.phar.verification, the steps to globally install the PHAR are:
$ wget https://phar.phpunit.de/phpunit.phar
$ chmod +x phpunit.phar
$ sudo mv phpunit.phar /usr/local/bin/phpunit
$ phpunit --version
PHPUnit x.y.z by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.
I followed the above, but with the URL for the older version, i.e. https://phar.phpunit.de/phpunit-old.phar (because our PHP version is older). I ran the following commands then -
$ chmod +x phpunit-old.phar
$ sudo mv phpunit-old.phar /usr/local/bin/phpunit
Note - My PHP version is 5.3.29. and the Old Stable Release section in phpunit.de says PHPUnit 4.8 is supported on PHP 5.3, PHP 5.4, PHP 5.5, and PHP 5.6.
Looks fine till here. But, running phpunit --version gives -
PHP Fatal error: require(): Cannot redeclare class phpunit_extensions_database_constraint_tableisequal in /usr/local/bin/phpunit on line 109
zend_mm_heap corrupted
So, instead of moving the .phar to /usr/local/bin/ (in the step 3), I was managing so far by running this -
$ php phpunit-old.phar –-version
I was also able to run my unit test cases in this way -
php /home/sandeepan/phpunit-old.phar /var/cake_1.2.0.6311-beta/app/webroot/openx/lib/ad_agencies/unittests/Admarvel_generic_network_test.php
But, now I need to integrate phpunit with phing. I would like to use the basic utilities provided by PHPUnitTask of phing. So, I guess it needs phpunit phar to be globally installed.
I tried my luck by writing the following -
<phpunit haltonfailure="true" haltonerror="true"
pharlocation="/home/sandeepan/phpunit-old">
<formatter type="plain" usefile="false" />
<batchtest>
<fileset dir="${dir.scratchpad}/${dir.subdir}/unittests">
<include name="**/*_test.php"/>
</fileset>
</batchtest>
</phpunit>
But I get this error -
BUILD FAILED
...
: PHPUnitTask requires PHPUnit to be installed
Update
With reference to stackoverflow.com/a/23410676/351903, I tried with this older version of Phpunit, i.e. PHPUnit-3.7.35. Now, phpunit --version command works. But I still have no success using the PHPUnitTask of Phing. Still getting PHPUnitTask requires PHPUnit to be installed error.
Update 2
The solution which worked for me was using PHPUnit 3.7.35. It seems there is some compatibility issue of phing with PHPUnit 4.8.

Answer 1

I have just downloaded the old PHPUnit file you provided from the phpunit.de website, and have applied succesfully the commands you wrote. Running phpunit worked like a charm in my case.
Perhaps there is an incompatibility between your PHP version and the PHPUnit version you downloaded?

Answer 2

I cannot reproduce the issue you describe:
$ wget https://phar.phpunit.de/phpunit-old.phar
--2016-04-07 09:47:35-- https://phar.phpunit.de/phpunit-old.phar
Resolving phar.phpunit.de (phar.phpunit.de)... 188.94.27.25
Connecting to phar.phpunit.de (phar.phpunit.de)|188.94.27.25|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: https://phar.phpunit.de/phpunit-4.8.24.phar [following]
--2016-04-07 09:47:35-- https://phar.phpunit.de/phpunit-4.8.24.phar
Reusing existing connection to phar.phpunit.de:443.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 3086772 (2.9M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘phpunit-old.phar’
phpunit-old.phar 100%[=====================================================================================================================================>] 2.94M 3.97MB/s in 0.7s
2016-04-07 09:47:36 (3.97 MB/s) - ‘phpunit-old.phar’ saved [3086772/3086772]
$ php phpunit-old.phar --version
PHPUnit 4.8.24 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

Answer 3

The solution which worked for me was using PHPUnit 3.7.35. It seems there is some compatibility issue of phing with PHPUnit 4.8.
Source - Phing can't see PHPUnit