PHP options in version provided by OS X Server 10.4.6/.7?

Question

My workplace is currently using Solaris 10/SPARC for webhosting, and our sysadmins were unable to get Apache 2.2.3/PHP5.1.4/MySQL5 to successfully compile and load. So they kept backing down to earlier versions of the above components until finally they got something like Apache 2.0.52/PHP 5.0.4/MySQL? (I'm going by memory) to successfully compile and load.
If it's this hard to get the current versions of the world's most popular httpd server (Apache) and web scripting language (PHP) installed, maybe Solaris 10/SPARC is not the right platform to be on for this kind of work?
IF we went OS X 10.4.6/.7 server, what would we get? Apache 1.3? 2.0? PHP 4.x? What options would be included under PHP? (e.g. could someone post the phpinfo(); result just for the PHP options that would appear on the 1st webpage? with a default OS X 10.4.6/.7 server install?)
When I google for 'Apache/PHP/MySQL and OS X', many webpages offer instructions and even compilation flags, but these are followed by warnings that these instructions only work on OS X workstation, not on OS X server. This would seem to indicate that OS X server users tend to leave the Apple-provided versions of Apache/PHP/MySQL as they are in the OS X server distribution?
any advice or pointers appreciated, ...ben
PB G4 15 1.67 GHz, iBook SE 0.47 GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Answer 1

OS X Server 10.4 comes with Apache 2 pre-installed, but you cannot use the GUI tools for configuring it. That's probably not a big deal to you coming from Solaris -- the GUI tools for the web server stay pretty basic and you wind up editing config files on the command line usually anyway.
MySQL 4.1.13 is still the default, but upgrading from a binary package from MySQL is simple enough -- no tricks there.
The default version of PHP is still 4.4.x. I've pasted the results below. However, rather than recompiling, for our PHP needs on the servers I used Marc Liyanage's PHP module (http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/php). I've been using it for at least a couple of years now, if not more, and it's great. Comes loaded with extensions, easy and painless to upgrade. Version 5.1.4 for Apache 2 is out. Although it doesn't explicitly state "Server", I have found, at least with the versions for Apache 1.3, that there has never been a problem using it on OS X Server.
There just is not a lot of good info out there on recompiling on OS X Server, so rather than chase down info every time there's an OS update, it works out easily enough for our needs to use the pre-built module.
Note: the info pasted below is from Apple's default setup as of 10.4.7, not the module from Entropy.
<pre>phpinfo()
PHP Version => 4.4.1
System => Darwin grok2.local 8.7.0 Darwin Kernel Version 8.7.0: Fri May 26 15:20:53 PDT 2006; root:xnu-792.6.76.obj~1/RELEASE_PPC Power Macintosh
Build Date => Mar 5 2006 10:28:06
Configure Command => '/SourceCache/apachemod_php/apache_modphp-18.4/php/configure'
'--prefix=/usr' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--disable-dependency-tracking'
'--with-apxs' '--with-ldap=/usr' '--with-kerberos=/usr' '--enable-cli' '--with-zlib-dir=/usr' '--enable-trans-sid'
'--with-xml' '--enable-exif' '--enable-ftp' '--enable-mbstring' '--enable-mbregex'
'--enable-dbx' '--enable-sockets' '--with-iodbc=/usr' '--with-curl=/usr' '--with-config-file-path=/etc'
'--sysconfdir=/private/etc' '--with-mysql=/usr' '--with-mysql-sock=/var/mysql/mysql.sock'
Server API => Command Line Interface
Virtual Directory Support => disabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path => /etc
PHP API => 20020918
PHP Extension => 20020429
Zend Extension => 20050606
Debug Build => no
Zend Memory Manager => enabled
Thread Safety => disabled
Registered PHP Streams => php, http, ftp, compress.zlib
This program makes use of the Zend Scripting Language Engine:
Zend Engine v1.3.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2004 Zend Technologies
Configuration
PHP Core
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
allowcall_time_passreference => On => On
allowurlfopen => On => On
alwayspopulate_raw_postdata => Off => Off
arg_separator.input => & => &
arg_separator.output => & => &
asp_tags => Off => Off
autoappendfile => no value => no value
autoprependfile => no value => no value
browscap => no value => no value
default_charset => no value => no value
default_mimetype => text/html => text/html
definesyslogvariables => Off => Off
disable_classes => no value => no value
disable_functions => no value => no value
display_errors => On => On
displaystartuperrors => Off => Off
doc_root => no value => no value
docref_ext => no value => no value
docref_root => no value => no value
enable_dl => On => On
errorappendstring => no value => no value
error_log => no value => no value
errorprependstring => no value => no value
error_reporting => no value => no value
expose_php => On => On
extension_dir => /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20020429 => /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20020429
file_uploads => On => On
gpc_order => GPC => GPC
highlight.bg => #FFFFFF => #FFFFFF
highlight.comment => #FF8000 => #FF8000
highlight.default => #0000BB => #0000BB
highlight.html => #000000 => #000000
highlight.keyword => #007700 => #007700
highlight.string => #DD0000 => #DD0000
html_errors => Off => On
ignorerepeatederrors => Off => Off
ignorerepeatedsource => Off => Off
ignoreuserabort => Off => Off
implicit_flush => On => Off
include_path => .:/usr/lib/php => .:/usr/lib/php
log_errors => Off => Off
logerrors_maxlen => 1024 => 1024
magicquotesgpc => On => On
magicquotesruntime => Off => Off
magicquotessybase => Off => Off
maxexecutiontime => 0 => 30
maxinputtime => -1 => -1
open_basedir => no value => no value
output_buffering => 0 => 0
output_handler => no value => no value
postmaxsize => 8M => 8M
precision => 14 => 14
registerargcargv => On => On
register_globals => Off => Off
report_memleaks => On => On
safe_mode => Off => Off
safemode_execdir => /usr/local/php/bin => /usr/local/php/bin
safemodegid => Off => Off
safemode_includedir => no value => no value
sendmail_from => no value => no value
sendmail_path => /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i => /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
serialize_precision => 100 => 100
shortopentag => On => On
SMTP => localhost => localhost
smtp_port => 25 => 25
sql.safe_mode => Off => Off
track_errors => Off => Off
unserializecallbackfunc => no value => no value
uploadmaxfilesize => 2M => 2M
uploadtmpdir => no value => no value
user_dir => no value => no value
variables_order => no value => no value
xmlrpcerrornumber => 0 => 0
xmlrpc_errors => Off => Off
y2k_compliance => On => On
ctype
ctype functions => enabled
curl
CURL support => enabled
CURL Information => libcurl/7.13.1 OpenSSL/0.9.7i zlib/1.2.3
dbx
dbx support => enabled
dbx version => 1.0.0
supported databases => MySQL
ODBC
PostgreSQL
Microsoft SQL Server
FrontBase
Oracle 8 (oci8)
Sybase-CT
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
dbx.colnames_case => unchanged => unchanged
exif
EXIF Support => enabled
EXIF Version => 1.4 $Id: exif.c,v 1.118.2.37.2.3 2005/10/10 06:07:16 helly Exp $
Supported EXIF Version => 0220
Supported filetypes => JPEG,TIFF
ftp
FTP support => enabled
ldap
LDAP Support => enabled
RCS Version => $Id: ldap.c,v 1.130.2.13 2005/05/08 16:06:24 sniper Exp $
Total Links => 0/unlimited
API Version => 3001
Vendor Name => OpenLDAP
Vendor Version => 20219
mbstring
Multibyte Support => enabled
Japanese support => enabled
Simplified chinese support => enabled
Traditional chinese support => enabled
Korean support => enabled
Russian support => enabled
Multibyte (japanese) regex support => enabled
mbstring extension makes use of "streamable kanji code filter and converter",
which is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1.
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
mbstring.detect_order => no value => no value
mbstring.encoding_translation => Off => Off
mbstring.func_overload => 0 => 0
mbstring.http_input => pass => pass
mbstring.http_output => pass => pass
mbstring.internal_encoding => ISO-8859-1 => no value
mbstring.language => neutral => neutral
mbstring.substitute_character => no value => no value
mysql
MySQL Support => enabled
Active Persistent Links => 0
Active Links => 0
Client API version => 4.1.13a
MYSQLMODULETYPE => external
MYSQL_SOCKET => /var/mysql/mysql.sock
MYSQL_INCLUDE => -I/usr/include/mysql
MYSQL_LIBS => -L/usr/lib/mysql -lmysqlclient
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
mysql.allow_persistent => On => On
mysql.connect_timeout => 60 => 60
mysql.default_host => no value => no value
mysql.default_password => no value => no value
mysql.default_port => no value => no value
mysql.default_socket => no value => no value
mysql.default_user => no value => no value
mysql.max_links => Unlimited => Unlimited
mysql.max_persistent => Unlimited => Unlimited
mysql.trace_mode => Off => Off
odbc
ODBC Support => enabled
Active Persistent Links => 0
Active Links => 0
ODBC library => iodbc
ODBC_INCLUDE => -I/usr/include
ODBC_LFLAGS => -L/usr/lib
ODBC_LIBS => -liodbc
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
odbc.allow_persistent => On => On
odbc.check_persistent => On => On
odbc.default_db => no value => no value
odbc.default_pw => no value => no value
odbc.default_user => no value => no value
odbc.defaultbinmode => return as is => return as is
odbc.defaultlrl => return up to 4096 bytes => return up to 4096 bytes
odbc.max_links => Unlimited => Unlimited
odbc.max_persistent => Unlimited => Unlimited
overload
User-Space Object Overloading Support => enabled
pcre
PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) Support => enabled
PCRE Library Version => 6.2 01-Aug-2005
posix
Revision => $Revision: 1.51.2.4 $
session
Session Support => enabled
Registered save handlers => files user
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
session.auto_start => Off => Off
session.bugcompat42 => On => On
session.bugcompatwarn => On => On
session.cache_expire => 180 => 180
session.cache_limiter => nocache => nocache
session.cookie_domain => no value => no value
session.cookie_lifetime => 0 => 0
session.cookie_path => / => /
session.cookie_secure => Off => Off
session.entropy_file => no value => no value
session.entropy_length => 0 => 0
session.gc_divisor => 100 => 100
session.gc_maxlifetime => 1440 => 1440
session.gc_probability => 1 => 1
session.name => PHPSESSID => PHPSESSID
session.referer_check => no value => no value
session.save_handler => files => files
session.save_path => /tmp => /tmp
session.serialize_handler => php => php
session.use_cookies => On => On
session.useonlycookies => Off => Off
session.usetranssid => Off => Off
sockets
Sockets Support => enabled
standard
Regex Library => Bundled library enabled
Dynamic Library Support => enabled
Path to sendmail => /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
assert.active => 1 => 1
assert.bail => 0 => 0
assert.callback => no value => no value
assert.quiet_eval => 0 => 0
assert.warning => 1 => 1
autodetect_lineendings => 0 => 0
defaultsockettimeout => 60 => 60
safemode_allowed_envvars => PHP_ => PHP_
safemode_protected_envvars => LDLIBRARYPATH => LDLIBRARYPATH
url_rewriter.tags => a=href,area=href,frame=src,form=,fieldset= => a=href,area=href,frame=src,form=,fieldset=
user_agent => no value => no value
tokenizer
Tokenizer Support => enabled
xml
XML Support => active
XML Namespace Support => active
EXPAT Version => 1.95.6
zlib
ZLib Support => enabled
Compiled Version => 1.2.3
Linked Version => 1.2.3
Directive => Local Value => Master Value
zlib.output_compression => Off => Off
zlib.outputcompressionlevel => -1 => -1
zlib.output_handler => no value => no value
Additional Modules
Module Name
Environment
Variable => Value
TERM => xterm
SHELL => /bin/bash
SSH_TTY => /dev/ttyp1
USER => **
MAIL => /var/mail/**
PATH => /bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
PWD => /Users/**
SHLVL => 1
HOME => /Users/**
LOGNAME => **
PHP Variables
Variable => Value
_SERVER["TERM"] => xterm
_SERVER["SHELL"] => /bin/bash
SERVER["SSHTTY"] => /dev/ttyp1
_SERVER["USER"] => **
_SERVER["MAIL"] => /var/mail/**
_SERVER["PATH"] => /bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
_SERVER["PWD"] => /Users/**
_SERVER["SHLVL"] => 1
_SERVER["HOME"] => /Users/**
_SERVER["LOGNAME"] => **
SERVER[""] => /usr/bin/php-from-apple
SERVER["PHPSELF"] =>
SERVER["SCRIPTNAME"] =>
SERVER["SCRIPTFILENAME"] =>
SERVER["PATHTRANSLATED"] =>
SERVER["DOCUMENTROOT"] =>
_SERVER["argv"] => Array
_SERVER["argc"] => 0
_ENV["TERM"] => xterm
_ENV["SHELL"] => /bin/bash
ENV["SSHTTY"] => /dev/ttyp1
_ENV["USER"] => **
_ENV["MAIL"] => /var/mail/**
_ENV["PATH"] => /bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
_ENV["PWD"] => /Users/**
_ENV["SHLVL"] => 1
_ENV["HOME"] => /Users/**
_ENV["LOGNAME"] => **
ENV[""] => /usr/bin/php-from-apple
PHP License
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the PHP License as published by the PHP Group
and included in the distribution in the file: LICENSE
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
If you did not receive a copy of the PHP license, or have any
questions about PHP licensing, please contact [email protected].</pre>