Hi folks,
This week's RFC review meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 25 at 2pm PST (22:00 UTC). Event particulars can be found at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/E92
The main task this week is to plan out what we will define the minimum PHP version to be for MediaWiki 1.27 (the next LTS version). The viable choices seem to be: * PHP 5.3 (the status quo) - this version is no longer supported upstream, and doesn't have widespread support even in conservatively updated Linux distros. * PHP 5.4 - this version is no longer supported by The PHP Group, but is still part of older supported Linux distros (e.g. Debian Wheezy) * PHP 5.5 - this is the lowest version with reliable LTS support in major Linux distros
The RFC additionally stipulates some coding standards, since even though it upgrading our version of PHP would make use of some features possible, that doesn't automatically make their use a good idea. The author broke up the feature set into "encouraged", "tolerated" and "verboten". Please read the RFC directly for more info on this: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T118932
Please comment on T118932 if you have further thoughts to share and/or please attend the meeting on Wednesday.
Thanks Rob
On 2015-11-24, Rob Lanphier robla@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi folks,
This week's RFC review meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, November 25 at 2pm PST (22:00 UTC). Event particulars can be found at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/E92
The main task this week is to plan out what we will define the minimum PHP version to be for MediaWiki 1.27 (the next LTS version). The viable choices seem to be:
- PHP 5.3 (the status quo) - this version is no longer supported
upstream, and doesn't have widespread support even in conservatively updated Linux distros.
- PHP 5.4 - this version is no longer supported by The PHP Group, but
is still part of older supported Linux distros (e.g. Debian Wheezy)
- PHP 5.5 - this is the lowest version with reliable LTS support in
In one enterprise environment I am familiar with one is stuck with SLES 11.3/11.4 with they own enterprise repository, and the newest I've seen was 5.3.something.
Saper
On Sat, Nov 28, 2015 at 1:35 PM, Marcin Cieslak saper@saper.info wrote:
On 2015-11-24, Rob Lanphier robla@wikimedia.org wrote:
[regarding discussion about https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T118932] The main task this week is to plan out what we will define the minimum PHP version to be for MediaWiki 1.27 (the next LTS version). The viable choices seem to be:
- PHP 5.3 (the status quo) - this version is no longer supported
upstream, and doesn't have widespread support even in conservatively updated Linux distros.
- PHP 5.4 - this version is no longer supported by The PHP Group, but
is still part of older supported Linux distros (e.g. Debian Wheezy)
- PHP 5.5 - this is the lowest version with reliable LTS support in
In one enterprise environment I am familiar with one is stuck with SLES 11.3/11.4 with they own enterprise repository, and the newest I've seen was 5.3.something.
As of Wednesday's meeting, PHP 5.5 is the new minimum for MediaWiki 1.27. The resulting conversation on T118932 shows there is frustration for how the decision was arrived at.
We need to figure out not only which Linux distros are supported, but what "support" means and how we accomplish it. If it turns out that SLES 11.3 is very widely used, that points for the need for someone to support that version.
That leaves a few questions: * What does "support" mean? Where does this belong on the continuum stretching from "continuing to offer security patches" to "require all master commits to MediaWIki to interoperate with PHP 5.3"? * Who should provide support? Is this something WMF needs to finance and lead? * How much analysis is a prerequisite to a PHP version jump?
I believe the conclusion on T118932 is a good one; it's time for us to move to PHP 5.5 for MediaWiki 1.27+. That said, we (the larger community; not just WMF) clarify our LTS strategy, since it's not entirely clear to me who is committed to supporting MediaWiki 1.23 all of the way until May 2017. Furthermore, there seems to be some skepticism as to whether 1.27 should even be offered as the next "LTS" version of MediaWiki. Could someone clarify this for me?
Rob
wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org