PHP updates with WHM on top of CentOS, are they safe?

[GraFfiX]

We recently upgraded our server to CentOS 6 from 5, and I have a question about php. I have been instructed before in this forum to remove the php* ignore entry from /etc/yum.conf, and to apply any updates to php that were then visible. This has corrected some issues for me before, so I just made it general practice. After we've upgraded, yesterday I tried to do the same thing, remove the php* restriction from yum.conf and then run yum update from shell. This resulted in an inoperational php, and I had to recompile through easyapache to get it working again. I guess my question is, how can I know when it is safe to take php updates from the atomic repo?

[GraFfiX]

Is this a dumb question? I'm sorry if it is, I would like to know if it is safe or not?

[scott]

cpanel doesnt let you use package management there I'm afraid

[GraFfiX]

I can use yum freely, and do often. I have been instructed here before to remove the php* restriction from yum.conf and update. Is this a safe practice?

[scott]

On a normal system, absolutely

[GraFfiX]

I was instructed to do this on a CentOS 5 system running cpanel/whm. I guess it would have to be evaluated when a problem arises, judging by your answer?

[GraFfiX]

For reference, here is the thread by mikeshinn:

https://atomicorp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5824

So I guess should I have an issue it should be evaluated on an individual basis whether or not it is safe to remove those yum restrictions and upgrade?

[mikeshinn]

The safest way to do an upgrade with yum, is to not run it with the "-y" switch, evaluate what is being upgraded and only upgrade what you need. ASL will upgrade itself if you use this command:

aum -u

If you have a third party product thats crippled your package management system, then you will need to uncripple it. Unfortunately, CPanel does this. We use package and software management, they dont. So nothing we install is going to conflict with anything thats using package and software management.