Anonymous CVS Access

If you wish to get the latest PHP source tree, you can obtain it through anonymous CVS. You should be warned that the CVS version is a development version, and as such, is often unstable, and may not even compile properly. The advantage of using CVS, though, is that you can get the latest fixes and updates, without having to wait for the official releases.

You can find more information about CVS, and download clients for most major platforms, at CVShome.org.

PHP 4 uses an advanced configuration system that requires you to have autoconf (2.13+), automake (1.4+), libtool (1.4+ [except 1.4.2]), bison (1.28+) and flex (2.5.4+) installed. All of the necessary utilities can be obtained from the GNU FTP site.

• It is recommended that you configure CVS by putting this in your ~/.cvsrc file:

  cvs -z3
  update -d -P
  checkout -P
  diff -u
  

• Log in to the PHP anonymous CVS server. Use phpfi as the password.
  

  cvs -d :pserver:cvsread@cvs.php.net:/repository login

• Obtain the PHP 4 CVS tree:
  

  cvs -d :pserver:cvsread@cvs.php.net:/repository co php4

Note:
You can retrieve a specific release of PHP from CVS by using the -r flag in your cvs command. For example:


cvs -d :pserver:cvsread@cvs.php.net:/repository co -r PHP_4_0_7 php4
     

Tags for major releases look like php_VERSION where version is the version number with periods replaced with underscores.

• Make sure you have autoconf 2.13 or newer, automake 1.4 or newer and libtool 1.4 or newer.

  Note:
  Certain combinations of autoconf, automake and libtool may not work when used together.
  See below for details.
  Also, certain versions of autoconf may generate warnings of AC_PROG_CPP called before AC_PROG_CC. These messages can usually be ignored.

• Run ./buildconf. After a while, the configure script should be generated.
  
• From this point onwards, installation is similar to the installation of one of the official packages with one main difference - you must have bison 1.28 or later and flex 2.54 or later to compile, because the pre-generated scanner and parser files are not included in CVS.

There are also other things, like the XML source code for the documentation, available via anonymous CVS. See the web-based view of the CVS server to see what is available, and substitute the appropriate name for "php4" in step 3 (and ignore the later steps).

You can also mirror the PHP CVS repository using CVSup. See here for more details.

autoconf, automake and libtool information

There seem to be problems with libtool 1.4.2. It is suggested that you use libtool 1.4, along with the most current versions of autoconf and automake. You should also ensure that autoconf, automake and libtool are installed in the same directory.

The following combination are known to work.

• autoconf 2.52, automake 1.4 and libtool 1.4
• autoconf 2.52, automake 1.5 and libtool 1.4