How do I upgrade PHP in Mac OS X?

Question

I feel this is an awfully obtuse question to ask, but strangely, this problem is poorly documented.

I would like to upgrade PHP, but there are several problems:

• There is no built-in package manager. MacPorts doesn't recognize php as an installed package because it didn't install PHP itself.
• Running locate php indicates there are probably many dependencies.
• I don't know HOW php was installed, as it was included with the OS, so I don't know whether I should install from source or download binaries. I also don't know the proper way to uninstall the previous version without breaking dependencies.

I am running on Leopard. I have a feeling Apple doesn't want you to upgrade. Would buying Snow Leopard and upgrade solve this problem (and future ones like it)?

Answer 1

There is no built-in package manager. MacPorts doesn't recognize php as an installed package because it didn't install PHP itself.

You could still install it with MacPorts. sudo port install php52 (or whichever version you want) will install PHP.

Answer 2

Upgrading to Snow Leopard won't solve the your primary problem of keeping PHP up to date. Apple doesn't always keep the third party software that it bundles up to date with OS updates. And relying on Apple to get you the bug fix / security update you need is asking for trouble.

Additionally, I would recommend installing through MacPorts (and doing the config necessary to use it instead of Apple's PHP) rather than try to upgrade the Apple supplied PHP in place. Anything you do to /usr/bin risks being overwritten by some future Apple update.

Answer 3

You may want to check out Marc Liyanage's PHP package. It comes in a nice Mac OS X installer package that you can double-click. He keeps it pretty up to date.

http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/php/

Also, although upgrading to Snow Leopard won't help you do PHP updates in the future, it will probably give you a newer version of PHP. I'm running OS X 10.6.2 and it has PHP 5.3.0.