[php-maint] Uploading 5.4 RC to unstable (Was: Upcoming transition of php5 to 5.4)

[Ondřej Surý]

Hi,

I was thinking that it could be a good idea (after current version migrates
to testing) to upload 5.4RCx to unstable to begin work on transition as soon
as possible. RC releases should have stable API(?), so application wise
there's no problem. I'll fill a release critical bug in our BTS, so
the 5.4 version
don't migrate to testing and close it with stable 5.4.0 release.

Ccing PHP internals to let them know and ask if it is a good idea (the 5.4RC
will be probably used by more people when uploaded to Debian unstable, i.e.
it means more testing, but also more bugreports).

O.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ondřej Surý <ondrej at sury.org>
Date: Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 08:40
Subject: Upcoming transition of php5 to 5.4
To: Debian Release <debian-release at lists.debian.org>


Hi,

this is just a heads up that we would like to ship wheezy with php5 5.4
which is in upstream RC phase now (and in debian-experimental).

It introduce a couple of incompatible changes (for a full list see attached
UPGRADING file), most notably (not listing minor changes and added features):
- default charset is now utf-8
- magic_quotes are deprecated (with warning)
- safe_mode and register_globals was removed
- three new reserved words: callable, insteadof and trait
- multibyte support is now default
- removed syntax (break $var, continue $var)
- sqlite(1) extension was removed (already done in php5.3 in Debian)

I am inclined to let the current php5 in unstable to transition to testing
and then upload next 5.4.0 RC to unstable with transition blocking bug,
so we can start testing existing software as soon as possible.

I also plan to provide "official" backports for Debian squeeze, so people
can come and test new php5.4 before they upgrade to wheezy.

Final note: We already had similar transitions in php (4->5, 5.2->5.3, etc.),
so it's not really a big deal, but it will require some amount of work hence
this email.

Ondrej
P.S.: Please Cc: me as I am not subscribed to the list (but I do check
the web archives).
--
Ondřej Surý <ondrej at sury.org>


-- 
Ondřej Surý <ondrej at sury.org>