What apache modules are required? - php

How can I determine what add-ons to apache will be required for my php code? I have legacy php code that was setup a long time back (and we dont have the documentation on what was done at that time). I need to get this application working on another new server, but apache has yet to be installed.
I would like to install only those components which are necessary.

a php module, pal
to run php code you need mod_php installed. That's it.
if you're talking of PHP extensions, that's another matter and it's hard do tell.
I'd make it this way: log all errors and watch for "undefined function" ones. And turn appropriate extensions on.
It have to be done anyway.
Legacy code being run on fresh PHP installations usually flood your logs with errors.

Related

Code only works if I use the Xdebug extension

When I started my latest project I learned how to use the xdebug extension and I have been using it ever since. Now I am ready to spin up a server and go in to production with this project and my site doesn't fully work. The frontend pages seem to work, which are php based as well, but the backend endpoints that query the database and return some data to the frontend always are returning a 500 status code. So I attach xdebug and figure out how to run it remotely and the pages all start working without any code changes. I go in to the php.ini file and turn it back off and the pages continue to work. Since this is an AWS EC2 server, I delete the instance and create a new one running the same initialization scripts I wrote to install all the software and I get the exact same issue. The server doesn't work until I follow the xdebug install instructions and restart apache2. And like before even when I unattach the xdebug extension via the php.ini file, the code continues to work. Even after the system is rebooted it still continues to work so whatever is being fixed appears to be permanent.
What would building and attaching the xdebug extension, and restarting Apache2, do to the a LAMP stack that would make my code work, even after the extension has been turned off? My server is being built with scripts that run various apt-get install commands with no binaries provided by me as it all is community provided programs. Like clockwork it breaks every time I rebuild the machine until I apply the extension. I can automate that in to my build scripts if I have to, but it is driving me a bit nuts that I don't understand what is happening.
When the server sends a 500 error, normally you get an entry to the php_error.log. So first check this file. Maybe there is some difference in memory limits, max. post variables etc.
I would suggest you to try to find calls of any xdebug specific functions such as var_dump() or any prefixed by xdebug_ in your code:
https://xdebug.org/docs/all_functions
What would building and attaching the xdebug extension, and restarting Apache2, do to the a LAMP stack that would make my code work, even after the extension has been turned off?
Installing one piece of software can bring with it another. If you sudo apt install php-xdebug without php installed, it will install php.

Does PECL Stem Work with PHP CLI?

I'm trying to build a background process that stems words using PHP CLI. I originally have used this stemmer, written in c (https://github.com/hthetiot/php-stemmer) - the problem however is that it will not work when executed via command line, only via the browser. I get an undefined function error. Before going threw the process of adding in a new module, I was hoping someone using it might already know if this is even possible. I'm aware of pure PHP implementations, but prefer the speed of a c extension.
Just found my system has two separate php.ini files, one for CLI, the other Apache. Just had to add the extension to the CLI ini.

PHP 5.5.9 test failures and Internal Server Errors

Firstly forgive me if my terminology isn't entirely accurate. I have only limited knowledge on this subject, but will best try to convey the problems we are having. My server administrator is trying to deploy php 5.5.9 on a live server. Originally the intention was to install php 5.4.x, but we opted for the latest version instead (a manual compile is required regardless due to the o/s)
The O/S is OpenSuse 12.1 and the server is a Plesk server (Plesk Version 11.0.9) with Apache 2.2.1. This particular o/s does not have the ability to update php automatically so everything has to be done manually. Since we didn't want to risk screwing up the server (currently running with php 5.3.8), we opted to install a second version of php alongside the current one. The instructions we followed are outlined here: http://kb.parallels.com/en/114753
After numerous failed attempts due to missing libraries during compilation, we were finally able to compile php 5.5.9 without error and then proceeded to run tests with 'make test'
Unfortunately, the test results came back with 32 failures and 20% of the total tests were skipped. A total of 13011 tests were done, 10410 of which were completed. The TEST SUMMARY can be downloaded from here: http://uploaded.net/file/v6ug55l8
Anyway, deciding we might aswell give it a try, we applied the changes as indicated in the first link above to the vhost.conf. However, it didn't work, and the vhost then returned Internal Server Errors for every page regardless of script or extension. The errors logs sadly do not indicate any errors, only a whole ton of internal server errors recorded by mod_security. We did notice a huge number of these in the error log: Warning: SuexecUserGroup directive requires SUEXEC wrapper. But, it doesn't seem to be related, as the same error goes back several weeks.
So, we're stuck without any idea what to do next. Our next attempt will be to try and compile a php 5.4.x instead, as perhaps something is bumping heads with 5.5.9...
Any and all advice will be appreciated. As per the opening statement, I'm not an expert here, so if you need any additional information about the machine and it's server, feel free to ask. Thankyou for your attention!
Problem solved. The vhost's CGI-BIN needed to be CHMOD 755 and not 775.

how to start php?

I am asp.net developer , i want to learn php
what are the software need to run compile php file ?
how to install this software any path that should be set ?
what kind of database it needs to store data and retrieve date ?
see me as beginner and then give the idea / information ..........
thanxx
You just need the PHP interpreter and if you want to do web stuff a webserver.
You can get the interpreter from http://www.php.net - if you are using windows you really want to get a binary version and not compile it on your own - and the Apache webserver.
As a database PHP developers usually use MySQL (but it can also connect to most other databases).
The easiest way for your to get started is getting a package like XAMPP which will contain all you need without requiring you to configure everything manually.
For actually learning PHP, please get a recent book/tutorial. Old stuff is usually telling people to do horribly things every sane developer will hate you for (cluttering your global namespace with variables settable by the user for example).
You could have a look at the official PHP docs which also contains a "getting started" guide.
Since you are an ASP.NET developer I assume that you are familiar with IIS and that you're probably using IIS 7.5. If so then the easiest way to familiarize yourself with PHP is to use Microsoft Web Platform Installer and install PHP directly to IIS. You don't have to set any paths after that, just create a site on IIS and start putting PHP files there. Keep in mind that Web Platform Installer automatically enables WinCache extension and your changes might not be there when you hit the refresh button. Just locate the php.ini and comment out the relevant line.
Straight from the horses mouth. Getting Started. You will need a php interpreter, if you have access to a webhost that has php installed you're half way there, if you have a linux partition you're half way there, otherwise check out XAMPP.
Software: XAMPP will get you up and running
Tutorial: w3schools
If you are familiar with IIS and want to use it as your web server you can download PHP for IIS here and use some of the learning material there to get started.
If you did not want to use IIS and wanted to use Apache instead then I agree with the others XAMPP will get you a dev environment up and running quickly.

Sqlite3, apache users, and easy installs

I'm writing a small app that needs to have a super easy install process. Version one used a csv file instead of a database, so priority #1 for v2 is getting sqlite going instead. I've used sqlite a lot with Ruby, and love it, but this is my first time using it with PHP.
Basically, in order to get SQlite3 to be able to insert into the db, I needed to make both the database.sqlite3 file and the folder containing it owned by the apache user. From reading the docs, this seems normal.
However, apache isn't always going to be running as the same user. Here, it's 'http', but I know on Ubuntu it's 'www-data', right?
So, is there a good way to detect the username Apache is running as, and changing it, or am I going about this wrong? It needs to be something I can just put in the install script, as the people who use this app don't know or care anything about tiny details like this.
Thanks.
I believe you're going at it from the wrong side: you need the SQLite db to be writable by the PHP script, as I understand the matter, and this might not be the same as the Apache user.
If PHP is installed as an Apache module it will inherit the Apache user, but a much more common case on shared servers is to have PHP set up as CGI under suphp or phpsuexec, so the scripts run with the permissions of the user himself.
I'd suggest you write an install.php script to create the folder and the database, so both will inherit the script's permissions, no matter which user it is. Look into the manual for mkdir() and sqlite_open(). If nothing else works there's always chmod().
As you specifically cite SQLite v. 3 you may want to check the server version with phpversion(); in PHP 5.3 sqlite_* functions do work with version 3, PHP 5.2 and below understand version 2 instead. To use version 3 in PHP 5.2 you must use pdo_sqlite.

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