How can I install PHP 3/4 on a Debian Server?

Paczki · 08-04-2021, 12:39 AM

Hi,

Yes, I know PHP 3/4 is insecure. I will not be using it in a production environment. I am just interested in using old PHP scripts that don't work on modern versions, such as phpBB2.

I am running Debian 10, but I am willing to downgrade to an old Debian version if required (this is a testing VM with no personal data).

Any help will be appreciated.

shruggy · 08-04-2021, 02:47 AM

It looks like the last Debian providing php4 was 4.0 (etch). The packages are in Debian Archive. I don't think they could be installed as is on Debian 10. You can try to rebuild them from source, but that won't be easy:

Code:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
Depends: apache-dev (>= 1.3.23) which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: apache2-prefork-dev (>= 2.0.53-3) which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: automake1.4 which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: firebird2-dev which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: libdb4.4-dev which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: libgcrypt11-dev which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: libgd2-xpm-dev (>= 2.0.28-3) which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: libmcal0-dev (>= 0.6) which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: libmysqlclient15-dev which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
 or
         libmysqlclient12-dev which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: libpng12-dev which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: libsablot0-dev (>= 0.96) which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Depends: libt1-dev which is a virtual package and is not provided by any available package
Unable to resolve dependencies!  Giving up...

boughtonp · 08-04-2021, 11:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paczki

I am just interested in using old PHP scripts that don't work on modern versions, such as phpBB2.

It might be easier to get some version of PHP 5 working, which appears to require only a single config change to work with phpBB2...

Quote:

Originally Posted by https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=211009

phpBB 2.0.x and PHP 5

With the recent release of the official version of PHP 5, people and hosts may be switching to the latest PHP version. At this moment, the phpBB Team does not officially support running phpBB on PHP 5, as phpBB2.0.x was not written with PHP 5 in mind. However, many users have reported using it sucessfully on PHP 5 having made a configuration change in PHP to enable support for the deprecated HTTP_*_VARS arrays which is turned off by default in new PHP 5 installations. The relevant configuration option is register_long_arrays and it is decribed in the PHP Manual. phpBB 2.0.x makes use of these arrays in order to maintain backwards compatibility with PHP 3.x and early versions of PHP 4.x which is part of the original specification.