Comments on: Running PHP4 and PHP5 in parallel

By: Dairenn Lombard

Dairenn Lombard — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:51:34 +0000

Looks like All your links are broken now.

By: PHPGuy

PHPGuy — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:28:17 +0000

Check this great tutorial on how to install PHP4 and PHP5 on Apache on Windows XP both on port 80.

How to install PHP4 and PHP5 on Apache on WindowsXP

By: jon

jon — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 01:46:34 +0000

How to run dual PHP instances with PHP 5.2 and any previous PHP in Windows 2003:

1. Right-click My Computer, go to Advanced tab, and click on Environment Variables.

Add the two installations and their EXT directories to the Path variable. For example, add:
c:\php;c:\php\ext;c:\TMAS\php;c:\tmas\php\ext;

Then, add the newer PHP version’s directory as a variable called PHPRC. For example:
Variable:PHPRC
Value: C:\PHP

Click OK to close the Environment Variables window, and click OK to close System Properties.

2. In registry, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>PHP, add a REG_SZ key called iniFilePath and give it a value
of the directory where the older PHP is installed. For example:
C:\TMAS\PHP

3. In IIS, go to the Web Service Extensions. Add both versions’ ISAPI module separately to the extensions
list, and allow both.

4. In IIS, go to each website utilizing the PHP versions. Set an ISAPI filter if needed. On the Home Directory
tab, click Configuration, and add .php, .php3, .phtml, and any other extensions needed (perhaps .html?) to
be filtered through PHP, and specify the ISAPI module version needed for each website.

You can now run two versions of PHP. This is because the order of where to look for the .ini file changed
between previous PHP versions and PHP 5.2, as documented at http://us2.php.net/ini:

—————————————————
php.ini is searched in these locations (in order):

* SAPI module specific location (PHPIniDir directive in Apache 2, -c command line option in CGI and CLI, php_ini parameter in NSAPI, PHP_INI_PATH environment variable in THTTPD)
* The PHPRC environment variable. Before PHP 5.2.0 this was checked after the registry key mentioned below.
* HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PHP\IniFilePath (Windows Registry location)
* Current working directory (for CLI)
* The web server’s directory (for SAPI modules), or directory of PHP (otherwise in Windows)
* Windows directory (C:\windows or C:\winnt) (for Windows), or –with-config-file-path compile time option
—————————————————-

By: Scott Meves

Scott Meves — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 03:52:32 +0000

The link on Tobias Schlitt’s site has temporarily been changed to this.

By: schriss

schriss — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 18:55:40 +0000

I forgot:
PHP4 is in PHP dir, PHP5 is in PHP5 dir, NO FILES in Windows folders. So when Fast-CGI spawns php.exe it finds all it needs in its own directory. Same for php-cgi.exe (PHP5).
This setup works with Zend Optimizer 2.6.2 installed. Each PHP loads appropriate dll from Zend folder.
Use phpinfo.php and phpinfo.php5 in two browsers to verify all works fine.
Good luck.

By: schriss

schriss — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 18:49:07 +0000

php.exe (PHP4) i php-cgi.exe (PHP5) search for php.ini in their directories first. PHPRC does not matter.
Use Fast-CGI, I got it working. Have PHP5 working with .php5 extension. For PHP4 I use old .php extension.
Put isapi_fcgi.dll in your PHP4 dir, configure IIS to use this DLL: add to allowed extensions and configure mappings to use this dll. Add .php5 mapping using this dll (still in PHP4 dir, do not copy isapi_fcgi.dll to PHP5 dir).
Then add the Fast-cgi registry entries as usuall, but add one more for .php5 with Apppath pointing to php-cgi.exe in PHP5 dir. You can also add Arg entry with “-c C:\PHP5\php.ini” if you want to be extra sure.
I even added eAccelerator to this config, but it can work with PHP4 OR PHP5, not both (memory share problem).

The only problem with this is that you have to monitor processes, because when w3wp fails, php.exe and php-cgi.exe spawned by Fast-CGI dll might not get killed, so when w3wp restarts it spawns more php.exe processes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 05:38:23 +0000

see also this page : (though very gentoo/linux oriented) http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/php/php4-php5-configuration.xml

By: Nova

Nova — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:19:59 +0000

Hi,
I am bundling Apache 1.3.x and Php 4.4 with my product.
I configured Php as module in C:\program files\php\.
My php.ini is at C:\program files\apache\ dir.

I also have another apache and php instance at C:\program files\apache\ and C:\php\ locations. Its php.ini is at C:\Windows.

After intalling my product, I installed Zend Studio Server [ZSS]and configured php.ini path as C:\windows\php.ini. ie, my second php instance.

Now, after restarting my products apapche server, the php_ini path shows as c:\windows. Before installing ZSS, it shows correctly.

How to locate my php.ini for my products apache & php configuration. I tried PHPIniDir & SetEnv.. option. Obviously both will not working in my case.

Any ideas.?
–
Thanks in advance,
Nova.

By: Looooooka

Looooooka — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 18:20:46 +0000

IIS6=no problem.You can use any of the above methods or just a separate application pool.
IIS5 you have to do the following:
copy php4 into one folder say…c:\php4 and php5 into c:\php5
put the php.ini-s into those folders(NO PHP.INI IN THE WINDOWS FOLDER!!!)
then make sure all the dlls(including support dlls for mcrypt and stuff that ARE compatible with these php versions)are also in these folders AND AGAIN NOT IN THE WINDOWS FOLDER.
DO NOT put any of these 2 folders in the SYSTEM OR USER PATH enviorment.
final step is to use a separate application name in iis and setup the .php extension to use the cgi-version of whichever php version you want.

I’m guessing this should also completely work on iis6.
And as far as other iis6 HOWTOS and everything i’ve read on the net they are ALL 2 long and include unneeded steps.I had it running pn iis6 in five minutes and none of those were needed.
So to the people writting them:”PLEASE TEST THE MINIMUMS NEEDED TO GET IT RUNNING BEFORE YOU WRITE THOSE” because all the steps you took that day before you got it running might be completely unneeded.
Good luck.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000

What about IIS ? :D