Php Extensions

[kaseytraeger]

Happy Memorial Day to everyone! And a big heartfelt "thanks" to all of you who are currently serving or have served in our armed forces. I want to thank you for helping this country maintain the freedom we currently enjoy.

 

Now, on to my question...

 

It seems to me like someone, at some point in the not so distant past, posted something about installed PHP extensions. I'm trying to set up a Blogrolling cache to my blog site so that if the BlogRolling.com site starts wigging out, it won't cause my site to slow down unnecessarily. In doing so, I've found a PHP script that will work in situations where the BlogRolling site is down for a short time, but it requires that the PHP Pear extension called Cache Lite be installed.

 

How do I find out which PHP extensions are installed? For Perl modules, I know you can dive right into your cPanel and choose the navigation item "Installed Perl Modules: Click to View"

 

I don't see anything comparable to that for PHP. Is there a master list somewhere of PHP extensions that are installed? Also, does anyone know off the top of their head if the PHP Pear Cache Lite extension is installed?

 

Thanks!

[btrfld]

Hi Kasey. Happy Memorial Day to you.

 

You can easily find out what's installed in php by using a built-in phpinfo function.

 

Create a new file, called info.php or something. In it put only the following:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Upload it and navigate to it, and it will give you all the information there is about what's installed and activated on the machine it runs on.

 

Have fun

Jim

[kaseytraeger]

Thanks, Jim...I'll have to do that! I know I've done it before, but it was awhile ago, and I honestly didn't even remember it ... yikes, is that the onset of old-timer's disease? Egads Naughty

[kaseytraeger]

Just ran the phpinfo(); command, and it looks like PEAR is not installed. I tried reading through the veritable volume of information output information from phpinfo(); but didn't see anything about the Cache_Lite package.

 

Too bad. Oh well, I guess there's more than one way to skin a cat. I'll have to keep researching this one.

 

Thanks again, Jim!

[TCH-Rick]

Pear is installed on all servers. It is listed in your phpinfo.php under the Configure Command section ('--with-pear'). While checking I installed the Cache_Lite module as well.

[kaseytraeger]

Rick,

 

Thanks so much! I remember seeing "with-pear", but didn't understand that it was referring the the Pear package. Don't ask my why...probably because I'm not yet familiar with how to read the phpinfo() results.

 

Thank you very much for installing the Cache_Lite extension! Just another reason why Rock Sign

[imajine]

I still have no way of knowing what PHP PEAR packages have been installed. Is there a way? And is there a way to install packages? I mean, I can do it manually but I'd rather do it the right way. And if I do get packages installed automatically, then will they be accessible to anyone on the server, or just me?

[btrfld]

You're welcome, Kasey.

 

I've been very busy lately, and so haven't been able to spend much time at the forum. What fun to come back and find a question from you; one not only that I could actually answer, but that no one had already picked up for you.

 

I see that Rick has you set up. Very cool. As ever, Rock Sign

 

Jim

[kaseytraeger]

I've been very busy lately, and so haven't been able to spend much time at the forum.

So glad to have you back, Jim! I hope your time away from the forums was for something fun (e.g., time spent with family or friends) and not for something as mundane as work!

[btrfld]

Work of a sort, but for my passion. I'm an actor, and I just finished my first of Shakespeare's major characters. Heady stuff, and I'm glad to be back to a slightly slower schedule.

 

Thanks for asking.

[TCH-Dick]

moved for organization

[thephiller]

I still have no way of knowing what PHP PEAR packages have been installed. Is there a way?

So does anyone have an answer to this question?

[TCH-Rick]

You can see the Php configuration by entering http://server##.totalchoicehosting.com/phpInfo.php and replacing the ## with your server number. The server number is found in the Welcome to Server## message when you log into CPanel.

[thephiller]

I see that PEAR is installed, but don't see a list of the PEAR packages that are installed. I'm currently looking to see if HTML_quickform is available or not.

[TCH-Rick]

Here are the Pear packages that are installed by default:

 

Archive_Tar 1.1 stable

Console_Getopt 1.2 stable

DB 1.6.2 stable

HTTP 1.2.2 stable

Mail 1.1.3 stable

Net_SMTP 1.2.3 stable

Net_Socket 1.0.1 stable

PEAR 1.3.2 stable

XML_Parser 1.0.1 stable

XML_RPC 1.1.0 stable

 

I installed the module you mentioned on the server you are on.

[thephiller]

Thanks! Rock Sign

[imajine]

I installed the module you mentioned on the server you are on.

I just submitted a ticket to install more packages on my server, and was told that the ticket is now being reviewed by the Level 2 Administration Team. First of all, what is the Level 2 Administration Team? And secondly, why does it require review, when it seems that Rick was just installing packages on the fly for other users?

[thephiller]

imajine,

check out this page: http://pear.php.net/manual/en/installation.shared.php

I installed PEAR using it and the package management after it is installed is super easy and convenient.

[imajine]

I knew about that, but was too lazy to do it. I guess it's better in the long run anyway. Thanks!

[TCH-Rick]

Part of the problem with your request is that there are quite a few packages you want installed and you asked about upgrading to newer versions. The default packages will likely need to remain on the current version as they are a part of the CPanel install and need to be tested with CPanel as well. I know it may seem odd, but some packages will develop problems with a newer version of a module or library. A case in point, AWStats does not work correctly with Perl 5.8.4. CPanel on a couple of servers updated perl to that version and AWStats stopped working correctly on those two servers. We had to edit the script to force it to use perl 5.8.1 instead.

 

I would advise installing the Pear packages in your local account and adding an include directory so that they are found. I'm not a big coder but I'm sure Raul can advise on this. The advantage is that if CPanel makes a major upgrade and reinstalls perl and pear or if your account is moved to another server your scripts may cease to work and we would need to reinstall the modules. Having them in your site prevents this potential problem.

 

Level 2, by the way, is our server admin team. There are some modules that we have installed numerous times and know will work well that we can install pretty quickly. There are some that we know cannot be installed and we generally answer those requests quickly as well. Requests for modules we have not tested go to Level 2 and are considered there.

[imajine]

Thanks, Rick. I made a mistake while changing the pear.conf file. In short, I have two installations of PEAR. Problem is, the files are owned by nobody, and I cannot remove them. Any easy way to get ownership again?

[imajine]

I've discovered what I need to do to fix the problem. I am opening a ticket.