Configuration

One of my older hosting servers runs into space issues constantly. And most of the time it’s a 24 GB log file (error_log) from a really old Joomla-based website. Why it gets so huge? Well, when I tail the logfile, I see messages about functions being deprecated in PHP, warnings, notices and a whole lot more literally racing by. I’m not sure if Joomla changed in recent years, but most of the code-base is a great example of how PHP applications should not be build....

When I ran our setup on an instance the other day, I noticed how it failed with a “package not found” (or similar) error. After debugging this a bit, we discovered that Karmic moved from “archive.ubuntu.com” to “old-releases.ubuntu.com” (Probably diskspace or something — but who knows? :-)). And because the sources pointed to the former, it broke the bootstrap process on new and existing EC2 instances and Vagrant VMs for us....

So, every once in a while I find myself in need of trying out newer, maybe, not-yet-released features in PHP. For example, recently, I wanted to test RoundCube PHP6 — this is how I did it. On a side note, the same setup would also work for testing code with previous versions of PHP. Toolbox I used nginx and the PHP source with a little bit of ./configure and make — for kicks!...

Frequently, you do client work and if you are fortunate enough, you can setup a development environment on your own server or your laptop (or whatever), tinker with the files, and templates, and so on — until it’s all done. And whenever you are done, it’s time to move files. Sounds easy? It sort of is! Checklist Here’s a small check list of things to keep in mind when you move an installation....

Since part one and two were uber-successful, here’s an update on my Zend Framework PHP performance situation. I’ve also had this post sitting around since beginning of May and I figured if I don’t post it now, I never will. Disclaimer: All numbers (aka pseudo benchmarks) were not taken on a full moon and are (of course) very relative to our server hardware (e.g. DELL 1950, 8 GB RAM) and environment....