[php-maint] Bug#710677: [php5] Call to undefined function json_decode()/json_encode()

[Mitch Halmu]

Dear Maintainer,

While it is my understanding that package php5-json will provide the
missing json.so shared library extension, this package is not available
for architecture sparc:

# apt-get install php5-json
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package php5-json is a virtual package provided by:
  php5-common 5.4.4-15 [Not candidate version]

E: Package 'php5-json' has no installation candidate
# dpkg -l|grep php5-common
ii  php5-common                            5.5.0~rc2+dfsg-2
sparc        Common files for packages built from the php5 source
# php --version
PHP 5.5.0RC2 (cli) (built: Jun  3 2013 10:50:14)
Copyright (c) 1997-2013 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.5.0-dev, Copyright (c) 1998-2013 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.0.2-dev, Copyright (c) 1999-2013, by Zend
Technologies
# php -r 'json_decode ("{}");'
PHP Fatal error:  Call to undefined function json_decode() in Command line
code on line 1

This is the newly upgraded php5 version without json support, which broke
quite a few S/W packages that use php json calls. Will a port for sparc be
made available in the repos, or do we need to compile our own packages
from source?

Cheers,

Mitch Halmu