PHP/Upgrading to PHP 5.6

To upgrade a system to PHP 5.6, first set the PHP_TARGETS variable in make.conf:

FILE /etc/portage/make.confSetting the target PHP version

PHP_TARGETS="php5-6"

Installation

Install PHP 5.6:

root #emerge --ask dev-lang/php:5.6

Replace APC

To build with the opcache USE flag (the default) while allowing the use of APC userland functions such as apc_fetch(), install APCu, which emulates APC but only has user caching functions. This may be necessary for older projects that rely on APC for caching.

If necessary, unmask it:

root #echo 'dev-php/pecl-apcu ~amd64' >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords

Install APCu:

root #emerge --ask dev-php/pecl-apcu

For PHP 7 compatibility:

root #emerge --ask dev-php/pecl-apcu_bc

Switch to PHP 5.6

Switch to it using eselect for all SAPIs:

root #eselect php set cli php5.6

root #eselect php set fpm php5.6

When other SAPIs are in use, be sure to run eselect for those as well.

Re-install compatible extensions

Since changing PHP_TARGETS is technically a USE flag change, it suffices to simply emerge @world with flags checking for new USE flags and all extensions should re-build.

root #emerge --ask --changed-use --deep @world

Uninstall incompatible extensions

Remove all old extensions that do not build for PHP 5.6. eix can be used for this task. Note that when piping to emerge, interactive mode cannot be used so --ask on the emerge command is not applicable here.

root #emerge --ask app-portage/eix

root #eix -I -C dev-php --use php_targets_php5-5 --not --use php_targets_php5-6 --only-names | xargs emerge -c

Be sure to migrate USE flags if versions have been specified in the package.use file(s).

Now that extensions have been removed, it may be useful to run a dependency clean up at this point for older ones that are no longer compatible.

root #emerge --ask --depclean

Migrate the configuration files

The different slots have different configuration paths. Please take care to migrate the configuration files before making use of a new slot.

Uninstall old PHP versions

For example, to remove PHP 5.5:

root #emerge --ask -vc dev-lang/php:5.5

Restart PHP-FPM

Restart PHP-FPM if applicable:

root #/etc/init.d/php-fpm restart