Default to current version of PHP

What version of Cloud Foundry and CF CLI are you using? (i.e. What is the output of running cf curl /v2/info && cf version? {"name":"Bluemix","build":"270013","support":"http://ibm.biz/bluemix-supportinfo","version":0,"description":"IBM Bluemix","authorization_endpoint":"https://login.eu-gb.bluemix.net/UAALoginServerWAR","token_endpoint":"https://uaa.eu-gb.bluemix.net","min_cli_version":null,"min_recommended_cli_version":null,"api_version":"2.92.0","app_ssh_endpoint":"ssh.eu-gb.bluemix.net:2222","app_ssh_host_key_fingerprint":"c7:1f:89:2a:62:3b:78:a9:08:c9:33:81:fb:39:26:da","app_ssh_oauth_client":"ssh-proxy","doppler_logging_endpoint":"wss://doppler.eu-gb.bluemix.net:443"}

cf version 6.32.0+0191c33d9.2017-09-26

What version of the buildpack you are using? 4.3.39

If you were attempting to accomplish a task, what was it you were attempting to do? Deploy a PHP app (actually a single index.php file)

What did you expect to happen? The PHP app to be deployed with some current version of PHP (7.0 or 7.1)

What was the actual behavior? App was deployed with PHP 5.6.31. This is not a supported version of PHP (see http://php.net/supported-versions.php)

Please confirm where necessary:

• I have included a log output
• My log includes an error message
• I have included steps for reproduction

This buildpack offers a very good selection of PHP versions and keeps up with everything brilliantly, thankyou! I would however like to propose that the default PHP version always be a recommended stable one - so today that should be PHP 7.1.

[ikari7789]

@dmikusa-pivotal if support for any version of PHP is to be dropped, I’d suggest aligning it with the official PHP EOLs. PHP 7.0 still receives security updates through almost the end of the year along with PHP 5.6. Around November, we can expect PHP 7.3 will be released, making 7.1 the oldest “supported” version. Keeping the default version at the middle of the 3 versions seems like a smart choice to me and should only need to happen about once a year.

[dmikusa]

@sclevine - Thoughts:

• I’m not sure we should switch to the 7.2 as default. That might be too aggressive. I’d be more comfortable with 7.1 as default. 7.2 as latest & 5.6 as legacy. I think we could even drop 7.0.

• Longer notice would be better: 60 or 90 days.

• If there’s some way the buildpack could alert on this change that would be even better. I know we do this if the buildpack version changes. Maybe we could do something similar. Keep track of the previously installed PHP version in the buildpack cache. If that changes, the buildpack could then alert. I think this would help for this particular case, but would also be generally useful as it would let people see when maintenance releases of PHP are changing too.

Dan