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whats the easiest/free php compiler?

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:00 am
by lisawebs
Im interested just in a compiler
to easily run php on linux/apache server,
with no or minimal changes to config files.

Very straight forward, no features, no bugs

Thanks

lisawebs@yahoo.com

Re: whats the easiest/free php compiler?

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:13 pm
by jack_indigo
Do you mean compiler or interpreter? Forgive me for asking, but some people don't know the difference and we have to rule that out first. A compiler compiles the source code into binary machine sourcecode or bytecode (depends on which compiler) that you can't read with your text editor. An interpreter just reads your sourcecode and runs it immediately. By default, PHP comes with a free interpreter. There are a variety of compilers out there -- some you pay for, some are free.

If you're wanting to simply install the ordinary PHP interpreter on your Linux Apache server, then you're looking at a few different options:

* Download the source code from php.net, then do a custom compile with commands like make, make install, and configure. This is not for the Linux newbie -- there are instructions for this, and there's all kinds of switches to turn on, dependencies to install, and so on, before it works.

* On some versions of Linux, they come with a tool called /usr/bin/apt. If you have that, then you can do something like:

sudo su
apt-get update
apt-get install php5*

* Other versions of Linux use a tool called /usr/bin/yum. If you have that, then you can use that tool, but since I don't use yum, you'll have to google on that.

* Some versions of Linux have XWindows loaded for a graphic user interface. Although this is not recommended to have a graphic user interface on a Linux server, it can be used to load a GUI tool that interface with yum or apt to install something. For instance, for apt, people use /usr/bin/synaptic.


But you need to note that just using yum, apt, a GUI tool, or custom compile will not get you where you want to be. I mean, if you want to connect to a database, then you'll need to install the database and the PHP connector for that. If you want to connect to interact with XML files, then you'll need to install the PHP handler for that.

This means you'll need to take the time to learn PHP installation, and it's a long topic.

On most web hosting providers, they install the PHP5 and MySQL5 for you so you don't need to mess with the interpreter and the database installation. At home, I use Ubuntu Linux (a Debian form of Linux) and I simply use apt-get install php5 and apt-cache search php | grep -i php | grep -iv lib | sort | more in order to see what's available for me to install.

Re: whats the easiest/free php compiler?

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:40 pm
by Ambush Commander
APC works well on Linux. XCache's another possibility.

Re: whats the easiest/free php compiler?

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:11 am
by RobertGonzalez
lisawebs wrote:to easily run php on linux/apache server,
with no or minimal changes to config files.
What's wrong with mod_php?