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Chris Shiflett

Hi, I'm Chris, a web developer and a founding member of Analog. I live and work in Brooklyn, NY.

End of Life for PHP 4

Today is 8/8/8, which is interesting for a few reasons, one of which is that it marks the end of PHP 4. What does this mean? It means yesterday's release of 4.4.9 is the final release of PHP 4. More information can be gleaned from the mailing list archives, beginning with Derick's request to drop support:

I am trying to gauge what people feel about dropping support for PHP 4 at the end of this year.

Derick caveated his suggestion with the idea of continuing to publish new releases that address security vulnerabilities. Rasmus didn't see the point:

I don't really understand what dropping support means if we will still release security fixes. That's the mode we have been in for at least a year, so what would change at the end of the year?

He suggested a stronger stance:

I'd be more in favour of a statement that put a final death date on it which means no new releases of any sort. We could still say security-fixes only by the end of the year and then death by 08/08/08 or something like that.

So, here we are. PHP 4 is dead. Long live PHP.

About This Post

End of Life for PHP 4 was posted on Fri, 08 Aug 2008 at 17:51:16 GMT.

12 Comments

1. Artem Nezvigin's GravatarArtem Nezvigin said:

Ah, great news!

PHP5 has been widely adopted at this point.

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 at 19:36:07 GMT Link

2. Artem Nezvigin's GravatarArtem Nezvigin said:

Oh, yea... post more :) Your comments on usability, security and overall code cleanliness are such a pleasure to read with my morning tea.

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 at 19:37:11 GMT Link

3. Chris Shiflett's GravatarChris Shiflett said:

Thanks much, Artem. I hope to get back to regular blogging soon, and it's the kind support from readers like you that motivates me.

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 at 19:51:58 GMT Link

4. Brian W's GravatarBrian W said:

Now I know what you guys meant by Marc with a "c"... Here's a permalink using the one with a "k"...

http://markmail.org/message/gw2ih2nypzbdp7nv

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 at 06:42:39 GMT Link

5. Chris Shiflett's GravatarChris Shiflett said:

Thanks for the clarification, Brian. :-)

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 at 13:42:33 GMT Link

6. Chris Shiflett's GravatarChris Shiflett said:

This post is currently being featured on Reddit. Many more comments can be found there.

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 at 19:54:40 GMT Link

7. Grant Palin's GravatarGrant Palin said:

It's great that PHP4 is officially done, it's been around a long time and it is time to move on.

I also want you to post more - you have had some great posts in the past...I found the discussions on sql injection and addslashes vs mysql_escape_real_string to be good reading.

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 at 17:09:21 GMT Link

8. will langford's Gravatarwill langford said:

yes. long love php5.

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 at 02:23:22 GMT Link

9. Charles Reace's GravatarCharles Reace said:

I agree:

http://www.charles-reace.com/blog/2...long-live-php5/

I think we PHP developers must all do what we can to get other developers as well as hosting services to move on and fully embrace PHP5 before PHP6 comes out. :)

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 at 20:48:12 GMT Link

10. Tomalak Geret'kal's GravatarTomalak Geret'kal said:

Following on from what Brian said, it's not *that* big a deal to get a PHP4 application working under PHP5. If your code is really not compatible at all then it was probably bad to begin with, and deserves to be rethough! This can only help to spur such thinking. So, in conclusion, good news methinks.

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 at 12:42:36 GMT Link

11. Miguel Palazzo's GravatarMiguel Palazzo said:

I think you're wrong. PHP 4.4 is DEAD, that's so right, because they just released 4.4.9, and you know, 4.5 comes after. That's what I understood

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 at 15:48:25 GMT Link

12. Chris Shiflett's GravatarChris Shiflett said:

Miguel, read the post again. PHP 4.4.9 is the final release of PHP 4.

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 at 16:14:41 GMT Link

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Glad it helped, Niall!

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