Migrating from PHP 5.5.16 to PHP 5.6.0 on Windows.

   They released PHP5.6.0 on Aug-27 21:52:22. Actually, it was about half a day earlier than the release on php.net, and time lag between the two I sometimes experience recently. So, this afternoon, I migrated from PHP 5.5.16 to PHP 5.6.0 on my Web server (Windows7 HP + SP1 (x86)). Here is its ChangeLog.

   They say “Most improvements in PHP 5.6.x have no impact on existing code. There are a few incompatibilities and new features that should be considered, and code should be tested before switching PHP versions in production environments.” and it is true. I didn’t need any changes on existing codes. However, migrating from PHP 5.5.16 to PHP 5.6.0 in my case. If migrating from more older version, you might need some changes.

   I did not change my old php.ini except about mbstring. PHP 5.6.0 has UTF-8 as its default charset, so I thought I does not need the customization about mbstring anymore. If you run production sites, you should use a php.ini based on the php.ini-production INI file that the official package includes. The php.ini-development INI file is for development environments.

   The following table shows my new configuration for the version 5.6.0. Drive_SV that is my server software partition.

	Default	Custom
1	output_buffering = 4096	output_buffering = Off
2	disable_functions =	disable_functions =”shell_exec, suexec, passthru, phpinfo”
3	expose_php = On	expose_php = Off
4	; extension_dir = “ext”	extension_dir = “Drive_SV:PHPext”
5	allow_url_fopen = On	allow_url_fopen = Off
6	;extension=php_curl.dll	extension=php_curl.dll
7	;extension=php_gd2.dll	extension=php_gd2.dll
8	;extension=php_mbstring.dll	extension=php_mbstring.dll
9	;extension=php_mysqli.dll	extension=php_mysqli.dll
10	;extension=php_openssl.dll	extension=php_openssl.dll
11		zend_extension= “Drive_SV:PHPextphp_opcache.dll”
12	;date.timezone =	date.timezone =”Asia/Tokyo”
13	;sendmail_from = me@example.com	sendmail_from = My email address
14	mysql.allow_persistent = On	mysql.allow_persistent = Off
15	;opcache.enable=0	opcache.enable=1
16	;opcache.memory_consumption=64	opcache.memory_consumption=128
17	;opcache.interned_strings_buffer=4	opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
18	;opcache.max_accelerated_files=2000	opcache.max_accelerated_files=4000
19	;opcache.revalidate_freq=2	opcache.revalidate_freq=60
20	;opcache.fast_shutdown=0	opcache.fast_shutdown=1

   The 1 and 14 settings might give some troubles on your server. It depends on your server environment. The 11 and 15 – 20 are values for OPcache. So if you don’t use OPcache, leave the default for them.Now 1 day after the migration. After that, php_opcache.dll was giving a lot of errors. I have stopped using OPcache until I find the solution. To change mbstring settings might give some bad effects to server performances. I am having wait-and-see attitude.

   As you see, I do not use MySQL Extension on my server anymore. I use MySQLi Extension only.

   I’ll show you my server software versions.

• Windows7HP+SP1(x86)
• Apache 2.4 Win32 from Apache Lounge
• ActivePerl 5.18(x86) from ActiveState
• PHP 5.6(x86) from PHP.net
• MariaDB 10.0 Win32 from MariaDB.ORG

   I’ve almost forgot to write. This time I had a trouble which gave me an error ‘Bad Host request’. It was BulletProof Security’s fault. Ha-ha-ha. So I disabled the plugin before PHP version up. Then I enabled it again after the PHP migration. I gave it a bum-rap. It was php_opcache.dll’s fault. Hey BulletProof Security, sorry!