Dear all,

Currently I'm building a new box using CentOS 5.4. As most of you already know, CentOS 5.4 comes with PHP 5.16 and I want to upgrade to 5.26. (I already know how to do that using yum)

What makes me wonder is http://php.net/ only provide it's source code. So my question is:

1. what's the benefit and/or lost of using source code + self compile than using the RPM files?
2. If I use RPM files, any time when needed I can easily add PHP modules by installing separate rpm files (e.g. php-mysql, php-xml, etc). Can I do this with the source code pack, or do I have to reconfigure and recompile everything from scratch?
3. How can I uninstall PHP that was created using source code + self compile? (I think "rpm -e" won't work here...)
4. If I use the source code + self compile, and someday I want to upgrade to the latest PHP at that time, should I firstly remove my previous compiled PHP, or I can just configure and compile the latest PHP (with a hope that it'll overwrite previous PHP)?

Thanks for your trouble answering my questions.

Regards,

YoChan

With source code you are in complete control over the version, patches, dependencies, and destination of the files installed. With RPM the builder has already dictated all of this for your distribution. You can use the RPM to remove the package (because it knows where it put the files) With source code, only you know where you told it to put the files, so you have to go in there and take them out yourself.

For the same reason, you can easily update RPMs, but you would have to start from scratch with source code. Lots of problems are caused by having two versions of the same software accessible at the same time. (Specially php)

PHP version 5.2.6 : 158 packages, Fedora 10 : Lots of SRC RPMS
available for rpm rebuild, for the most extras.
php526 http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-5-2-a-791943/
Post # 4 , etc.

LQ info : http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/search.php
>>> 'Tag Name' = php5 :
Your questions 1....4, may already have been answered in one
of the other threads ?
.....

@bakdong: Thanks for the answers. I think it covers everything
I'll write everything down again, and CMIIW
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@knudfl: I've tried to search before posting. But still can't find what I'm looking for. But I'll be more careful next time