Notes

Apache - Marcus Povey

So, I've been using ownCloud for a while as a convenient method to share specific files across my various devices. I've even learnt on How to Make a Minecraft Server, which has been a lot of fun. gmxs It's an PHP application, so it's simple to create.



Anyway, I updated my server to use PHP 7.3 to be able to run the most recent Known code, among other things. PHP 7.3 is the most stable code, and that is what everyone should be running, in fact.



This was a bit of an issue, since ownCloud would only run on PHP versions up to and including 7.2! While PHP 7.3 will be supported in the next version of ownCloud the release schedules are a bit slow and I had to get my syncing on the right track.



It is possible to make use of PHP 7.2 on the ownCloud server, and PHP 7.3 on all other apps.



Installing PHP-FPM



If you are using the older mod_php apache module, you will have to install PHP-FPM.



I was planning to do this since this is the current way of running PHP. It's quicker, provides more performance options and, more importantly for my purposes, it decouples Apache and PHP to allow you to run multiple versions.



On Debian servers (mine is Debian, with an external PHP 7.3 apt repository installed) This is incredibly simple:



You'll also have to install all PHP modules (pdo and gd) However, it's up to you.



Next, you want to change your configuration:



Two things to note here. First you must replace the a2dismod command with the version of PHP you currently have installed. Additionally, you'll notice that I didn't activate the PHP 7.2 FPM config. This is because I want PHP 7.3 to be the default on all sites, but I want to be able to selectably enable PHP 7.2 on specific virtual hosts.



You'll probably see something similar to this when you go to the phpinfo()



Notice the PHP version and Server API.



If you look at your server's processes, you'll notice both PHP 7.3 and PHP 7.2 FPM servers running:



Configuring ownCloud's VirtualHost to use PHP 7.2



You'll need to modify your ownCloud VirtualHost to allow you to use the PHP CGI server at the speed of 7.2.



Again, this is really really easy, and is pretty much a cut and paste from the php7.2-fpm.conf file you'll find in your /etc/apache2/conf-available directory.



The following should be included in your ownCloud virtual host definition



Now you can run the phpinfo() on your ownCloud domain to check for PHP 7.2 running!



Now I can resume synchronizing my files and run the latest PHP version for other domains.



This is a great feature that can be used for more than slow software updates. This method will allow me to run a bleeding-edge PHP version such as PHP 7.4 against my development version, Known, and keep my blog running on the stable version.



Anyway, I thought it was cool. I hope you will find it useful!


Homepage: https://gmxs.net/