Can I have different versions of php installed and running on my server?

Question

My friend has allowed me to have access to his server, he has been coding PHP a lot longer than me and still uses php version 4.3.9 and doesn't want to upgrade this current version. Is there anyway for me to install php version 5.2 and use that while he still runs 4.3.9? I require some functions which are only available in 5.2. The server runs on redhat.

Answer 1

Here is a similar question check out .

Answer 2

Yes, you can compile with concurrent dso to support this. I really do not recommend mixing 4 and 5, expect those results to be undefined. Its not just PHP that you worry about, its Apache2 and php4.

But, concurrent dso will allow both versions to co-exist peacefully, as far as the loader is concerned.

Answer 3

You can install PHP5 as FastCGI. Anyway, your friend has a problem. PHP4 is obsolete and no longer supported. See: http://www.php.net/downloads.php#v4

Answer 4

Yes you can, one php is run as CGI and other as MODULE.

OR

You could run 2 apache's. I have apache 1.3.x with php4 on port 82 and apache 2.2.x with php5 on port 80. In both cases php is run as module.

In both cases I do not recommend this for production server, only for development.