We, the Gentoo PHP team, are going to mask =dev-lang/php-4*
[0] and all
packages explicitly depending on this version of php around
October
18th (i.e. the whole dev-php4/ category (36 packages) and
www-apps/knowledgetree, unless there is a php5-compatible
version by
the time of masking; bug 194894 [1]). This step is necessary
as
there is hardly any upstream activity anymore.
The last official version of php-4 (4.4.7) dates back to May
3rd and is
in the same state as php-5.2.2 security-wise (and we all
know how many
issues php-5 has had in the past, just have a look at the
recently
published GLSA 200710-02 [2]).
All those security problems, which were fixed in the 5.2
branch,
possibly apply to the 4.4 branch as well, yet there are no
(backported)
fixes in upstream CVS and there is no sign of an upcoming
release
either.
This means, if we were to continue php-4 support we would
have to do
the upstream work and compile a list of issues + patches.
Upstream
developers seem to see it the same way -- "if you
really want to get it
done - do it" was one reply when I asked what's up with
php-4. No one
from our PHP team has the time and motivation to do that
work, and as
such we are going to mask it (unless someone volunteers to
do the work
and/or upstream becomes active again).
We will still keep php-4 (and all related packages) in the
tree until at
least the end of the year (this is the date where official
upstream
"support" ends) and bump it if (and not
"when"...) there are any
releases.
We advise all users of php-4 to upgrade to php-5 as soon as
possible,
although it may break really old PHP scripts which rely on
php-4 specific behaviour. Please see the upstream
documentation
[3][4][5] for any advice on how to migrate your scripts.
[0] http://
bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=189172
[1] http://
bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=194894
[2] http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200710-02.x
ml
[3] http://ww
w.php.net/manual/en/migration5.php
[4] http://w
ww.php.net/manual/en/migration51.php
[5] http://w
ww.php.net/manual/en/migration52.php
--
Christian Hoffmann
Gentoo PHP herd
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