[Labs-l] PHP5.5, MediaWiki, and you

[Bryan Davis]

MediaWiki has bumped the minimum required version of PHP from 5.3.3 to
5.5.9 [0]. Code is starting to land in master (and possibly the
1.27.0-wmf.13 internal release branch) that will not run on PHP
versions less than 5.5.x.

What does this mean for you as a Labs user? Not much, unless you are
running MediaWiki code on a Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise) host. In that case
it means that the latest and greatest MediaWiki core code could stop
working for you the next time you run `git pull`.

For Labs users, you can build new instances using the Ubuntu 14.04
(Trusty) and/or Debian Jessie base images. Both have PHP versions
modern enough to meet the new base compatibility requirements. If you
are building a new server to replace one that was running the old
labs-vagrant role, make sure you choose a Trusty base image. The new
`role::labs::mediawiki_vagrant` Puppet role that replaced labs-vagrant
does not work on Jessie at the moment. [1]

For Tool Labs users, you can submit your jobs to the grid as `jsub -l
release=trusty ...` [2] or `webservice --release trusty ...` [3] to
ensure that your job is assigned to an executor that is running Ubuntu
14.04 (Trusty).


[0]: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T118932
[1]: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:MediaWiki-Vagrant_in_Labs
[2]: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Tool_Labs/Grid#Specifying_Ubuntu_release
[3]: https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Tool_Labs/Web#Default_web_server

Bryan
-- 
Bryan Davis              Wikimedia Foundation    <bd808 at wikimedia.org>
[[m:User:BDavis_(WMF)]]  Sr Software Engineer            Boise, ID USA
irc: bd808                                        v:415.839.6885 x6855