Anyone using PHP 7 in a production environment?

I’m about to start writing a new PHP application on a new CentOS 7 server. Is there a version of PHP 7 that is stable and safe to use in a production environment? Or should I stick with 5.6?

Is anyone using PHP 7 on a live production server? If so, what version are you running and how is it working?

As 5.6 will get only critical security support until December 2018, and 7.0 until the same, perhaps the question should be why not 7.1 that has been out for 9 months.

http://php.net/supported-versions.php

I would love to use 7.1. Are you using that version on a production server by any chance? If so, how is it working out?

Now I just need to find a repository that releases stable versions of PHP 7 so I can do updates via Yum.

HI, @OhMonty, I think the benefits outnumber the risks by far. I think PHP7 has been around for long enough to be majorly stable. However I have no experience with it in production but I found this article for you: https://matthewdaly.co.uk/blog/2016/03/18/my-experience-using-php-7-in-production/

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we’ve been using 7.0 for a year now in our vagrants, and have it in productions for about 6 month. it just works and performs great. and we are upgrading to 7.1 soon.

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Remi Collet is a great man who is for many years maintains a repository essential for any developer using Centos

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Thanks! Took a look at that article, seems like PHP 7.1 is the way to go.

Good to hear. I’ve just set up my CentOS server with PHP 7.1 and MariaDB 10.1. Going to give it a whirl with this new PHP application.

Thanks! That’s actually the repository I ended up using to set my server up with PHP 7.1 last night. Seems like the the most respected/used repository for the latest PHP stable releases. Are you using PHP 7.1? If so, any problems using it?

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It’s strange you are asking this kind of question now because PHP 7 is not new at the moment. I’ve been using 7 for more than a year in production in several web sites and more serious applications and no problems at all. Gradually, I’m moving to 7.1.

To be honest, in all my PHP programming years I haven’t come across a single stability issue nor even a bug. I know there are bug fixes all the time but I think they mostly turn up in some specific rare circumstances. There were lack of features, sometimes lack of proper documentation for some behaviour but never a bug - for me PHP is a very stable and solid program.

I think you shouldn’t consider 5.6 any more unless you have legacy code - it’s already outdated and much slower than 7.x, no reason to use it.

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Well I’m just not aware of what web developers are using out the in the wild, so, thought it didn’t hurt to ask. The reason I’m asking is because PHP 5.6 is the default version being installed by Yum on new CentOS and RedHat installs. Getting the newest stable version of PHP requires manually adding a different repository. So this made me wonder why.

Very good to know! After some research and reading I did after making this post, I decided I’d go with 7.1, and have set up a new server with PHP 7.1 and MariaDB 10.1 to start this new project.

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I know a lot of shared hosing offers 5.# as the default version, but I think they are holding back to cater for all the legacy code out there, old WP stuff and those who don’t know any better. They are frightened that if they dropped that legacy support, half their clients sites would break.
But unless you are using ancient legacy code you have nothing to worry about. Of course you should test locally first before going live to be sure.
I have (and I’m sure many others here too) made the move to 7 and it’s gone without a hitch.

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Hi Sam. That reason for continuing with PHP 5.x makes sense, even though, as has been pointed out, PHP 7 has been out and stable for a few years now. There are still lots of PHP apps out in the real world that need PHP 5.

I’m happy to hear from another person using PHP 7 successfully, looking forward to using it’s new features and the big increase in speed!

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Trouble is until hosts start terminating support for 5.x en-mass, will people bother to update their code bases to work with 7.x?

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And you can kind of flip this issue on it’s head and ask - “Should PHP be releasing so many new versions so rapidly?”

As @SpacePhoenixAdvisor mentions, people will hold onto their old code for as long as possible. Perhaps this should be a message to PHP to slow down their development.

From what I see people value stability over cutting edge. “My site works just fine now, why update?”

Yet, when you look at PHP’s development (and to a lesser degree, WordPress, Joomla!, cPanel, etc) they release updates like some lit a fire under their butts. PHP 5.6 is still in life, yet PHP 7.0 exists, PHP 7.1 exists, and PHP 7.2 is in release candidate. Do we really need that many different versions of PHP?

Because of this setup, I suspect PHP 7.0 will be skipped as a widely accepted default version of PHP. People will go from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7.1 (or maybe PHP 7.2 if this development trend continues). So that begs the question, what was the point of releasing PHP 7.0?

There is definitely a vast performance increase from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7.1 (I skipped PHP 7.0). We haven’t yet switch to PHP 7.1 by default on our server yet, but it is being planned. I definitely understand the need for improvements in PHP, but sometimes I wonder if PHP is just releasing new versions just to be releasing new versions.

Edit: I should add that PHP voted to extend the life of PHP 5.6, that’s why it’s technically being supported longer than PHP 7.0 is. I think that was a step in the right direction, but the development of PHP still needs to slow down. Eventually it needs to become more like C and Perl and be anointed as “mature as it’s ever going to be”. That doesn’t mean that updates don’t flow out, but they become less and less.

Good point. It’s a vicious circle. I think terminating legacy support would be a good kick up the back-side for all those dragging their heels, to finally get around to updating their code, so we can all forward.
But on the other hand I totally understand why hosts do it. They don’t want to annoy their customers and drive them away.
I think a good portion of those people are blissfully unaware their out-dated code base, those using CMS and the likes that they don’t really know the workings of and have not updated. Then how many PHP newbies do you see roll up here posting mysql functions? Then there are those burying their heads in the sand pretending it’s not happening “I will update, just not right now.” :rolleyes:
As far as I’m aware, the only gotchas in moving from 5 to 7 are long deprecated functions which all those who have got a clue know about and have had ample time to deal with.
We should all be able to move on by now. But in reality, there are still people writing code today that does not belong within the last ten years, we see it every day right here in the forums.

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I run a high speed, private, WordPress hosting company.

I run Apache-2.4.27-6.1 + PHP-7.1.10-1 + always run latest stable LAMP Stack components.

PHP-5.6 is nearing EOL (end of life), so best upgrade all your code now.

The PHP Compatibility Checker provides fast + friendly help locating + fixing deprecated code, which will break moving from pre-PHP-7.0 to PHP-7.1.x + beyond.

I’ve used this with many of my clients to locate problems.

Works equally well for small projects or large projects (1,000,000s of code lines).

I’ve been using PHP-7.1 since first day it released + it’s rock solid + very fast.

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Currently moving to 7.2 for all my hosting machines.

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