Reliable Penguin

It is of course a bad idea to write code that depends on register_globals for security reason, but sometimes when faced with old code it's a necessary evil. You can turn on register_globals for a site or directory by adding the following line to your .htaccess file:

php_flag register_globals on

If you have a server with PHP4 installed but need PHP5 on some websites then:

1. Install a custom build of PHP5 to /opt/php5.

2. Add lines like the following to your apache virtual host:

   AddHandler application/x-httpd-php5 .php 
   ScriptAlias /bin /opt/php51/cgi-bin
   Action application/x-httpd-php5 /bin/php5

You might also find the RemoveHandler directive handy to disable PHP4.

If you need PHP4 on a CentOS5/RHEL5 server then you'll find the RPMs linked below very handy. They install to /opt/php4 and can coexist with a default PHP 5 install.

The included conf.d/php4.conf file includes sample lines to run it as a CGI or as a module.

RPMs are here:
http://repo.conforge.com/conforge/CentOS/5/i386/RPMS/
http://repo.conforge.com/conforge/CentOS/5/x86_64/RPMS/

See this URL for details to add the yum repo:

http://wiki.conforge.com/wiki/Linux-PHP4cgiAndPHP5on+CentOS5

Here's a step-by-step to setup a RackSpace Cloud Server with CentOS for PHPList (http://phplist.com):

1. Install PHP, PHP IMAP module, PHP MySQL module, MySQL Server and FTP server:

   > yum install php
   > yum install php-imap
   > yum install php-mysql
   > yum install mysql-server
   > yum install vsftpd
   

   Apache and a number of other related packages are installed automatically as dependencies.

2. Set Apache, MySQL and FTP service to start on boot:

   > /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 httpd on
   > /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 mysqld on
   > /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 vsftpd on
   

3. Start Apache, MySQL and FTP:

   > /sbin/service httpd start
   > /sbin/service mysqld start
   > /sbin/service vsftpd start
   

4. Set MySQL root password:

   > /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'somepass'
   > /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -h ENS password 'somepass'
   

5. Download PHPList distribution:

   > mkdir /root/archive
   > cd /root/archive
   > wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/phplist/phplist/2.10.10/phplist-2.10.10.tgz?use_mirror=voxel
   

6. Unpack and install

   > tar -xvzf phplist-2.10.10.tgz
   > rsync -avz phplist-2.10.10/public_html/lists \
         /var/www/html/
   

7. Add FTP user and set file ownership:

   > /usr/sbin/useradd -d /var/www/ webmaster
   > passwd webmaster
   > chown --recursive webmaster.webmaster /var/www/html/
   

8. Create database:

   > echo "CREATE DATABASE lists" | mysql --password=somepass -u root
   > echo "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON lists.* TO 'lists_web'@'localhost' 
         identified by 'yyyyyy';" | \
         mysql --password=somepass -u root
   > echo "FLUSH PRIVILEGES" | \
         mysql --password=somepass -u root
   

9. Configure firewall:

   > system-config-securitylevel-tui
   

   From the security level menus, set SELinux to disabled, then customize and allow incoming WWW and FTP.

10. Setup PHPList config file:

    > vi /var/www/html/lists/config/config.php
    

    In the editor, set database parameters.

11. In your web browser go to:

    http://your.domain.com/lists/admin/
    

    You'll be prompted to initialize the database. Follow the installation screens to complete the install process.

The basic install is now complete. The PHPList admin screens are located at:

http://your.domain.com/lists/admin

Here's an update to this article:

Upgrade CentOS4 to PHP 5.2.9

The spec file has been modified to build the php-sqlite module which is needed by Plesk Sitebuilder. Here's the new package:

php-5.2.9_for_centos4.2.tar.gz