Support for PHP 5.3 in RHEL 5 via new php53-mapi RPM package

[Robert Scheck]

Good evening,

Red Hat introduced with with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 a new PHP version
for users, which whish to migrate to a more current PHP release. This new
version was packaged as "php53" and replaces the regular "php" (PHP
5.1.x)
if the user chooses to migrate.

Unfortunately, PHP 5.1 and PHP 5.3 are ABI incompatible, that means that
PHP modules that were compiled for PHP 5.1 can not be run using PHP 5.3.
Every PHP module that shall work with PHP 5.3 needs to be recompiled from
source.

What does that mean for Zarafa? There is "php-mapi" which was compiled for
PHP 5.1.x by default and thus you can not use Zarafa WebAccess or any other
PHP MAPI related software which requires the PHP MAPI module - till today:

Thanks to Erik Jacobs (who complained about this issue) and Matej Cepl (who
did the Fedora Package Review), I am able to let you know that I submitted
the new RPM package "php53-mapi" in Bodhi as an official update for EPEL 5.

This new package is available until it has been pushed to the EPEL testing
repository via Bodhi (via Koji) using the following URL:

  https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/php53-mapi-7.0.0-1.el5

If you use "php53" on RHEL 5 (or derivates) already, just get it and test
it. And please add afterwards positive or negative karma to the package in
Bodhi.

Some notes for PHP 5.3 users on RHEL 5: It does not matter whether you use
the PHP 5.3 RPM packages from RHEL 5 (or derivates) or these from the IUS
Community Project. Things go even that far that you can use this php53-mapi
RPM package together with the official Zarafa RPM packages - of course, it
will be unsupported by Zarafa. But if you really have the need, you do not
need to compile this extension any longer by yourself and you do not need
to use some of the untrusted "mapi.so" binaries for PHP 5.3 that were made
available by some people on the Internet.

But there are caveats for now, if you want to use PHP 5.3 on RHEL 5: Due to
a packaging bug of Red Hat, you need to install the "zarafa-webaccess" RPM
package until Zarafa 7.0.1 using "rpm -Uvh --nodeps <package>". So
starting
with 7.0.1 final release, I will work around this issue by a hackish trick.

Nevertheless, if you are also a "zarafa-z-push" or "z-push" user (from
RPM
Fusion), I have to disappoint that the packaging trick from WebAccess does
not apply for Z-Push. Instead, please help to get the source of the issue
fixed, the packaging bug in RHEL 5, by opening a "Service Request" in your
Red Hat Network account. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=717158
is the URL that needs to be mentioned in the ticket and if possible, please
add also a comment to the bug report with the ID of the Service Request. As
RHEL is mostly customer-driven, official requests from paying customers via
the Red Hat customer portal are the best way to priorize this issue.

And if you should find bugs or issues, please fill a bug report in Red Hat
Bugzilla as described here:

  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Zarafa#Bugs

Your feedback is very much appreciated.


Greetings,
  Robert