[csw-users] CSW mySQL with OpenSSL support.

[Mark Round]

>  Our webmaster wants to know if the CSW's PHP version allows him to add
> PHP extensions without a recompile, as he says that his current non CSW
> version forces him to do this.   As he has to add circa two or three
> extensions per month, avoiding recompiles would make life easier.

Hi,

As the package of PHP from Blastwave is a binary, he shouldn't have to
do recompiles anyway. It is possible (in theory) to add any extra
modules in, as long as his source code matches the Blastwave PHP
version. But I've never tried doing this, so your milage may vary...

> How does the CSW PHP get round this, or is there a list of included
> extentions available, and how they are added to each release?

CSW PHP is a "monolithic" package, in that many extensions are
compiled straight into PHP itself. A list of these can be seen by
looking at the output from phpinfo(). Try creating a PHP file
somewhere on your server, containing the following :

<?php
  phpinfo();
?>

And access it in a web browser. You'll get a page of very detailed
information about the PHP build. For reference, I've included the
current extensions enabled in our PHP package below. If you'd like any
specifics about the build process, just let me know.

In the future, CSW PHP will be a modular package. You'll be able to
download the core PHP package, and add extensions as you wish - if you
want to add MySQL support for instance, you'd just pkg-get -i
php4_mysql. I'm working on this at the moment - it works well, but
there are several issues that need to be resolved before it's ready
for general release.

In the meantime, if your SysAdmin would like a particular module added
to the CSW build of PHP, just drop me a line (or raise a feature
request via the bug tracker), and I'll do my best to get it added
(FreeTDS and ODBC support are already on the wishlist, and will be
forthcoming in the next release).

Thanks,

-Mark
mark at blastwave.org (PHP maintainer)

--List of extensions enabled in Blastwave PHP--

mysql
mysqli
openssl
zlib
ndbm
db3
sysvshm
ftp
mcal
calendar
freetype
t1lib
bz2
dom
readline
ldap
gettext
gd 
mm
pgsql
bcmath
curl
expat
imap