Hi Keith,

I have solid word from Red Hat that each minor rev to their major releases are 100% binary compatible, and yes, they lock the version numbers for the entire release.  If you look at the RH version numbers, you'll see something like this:
    5.3.3-27.el6_5
Everything after the dash is Red Hat's patch.  So even after they backport a fix, the version (5.3.3) remains the same, but the patch number increases.  So in this case, this is the 27th Red Hat patch to PHP 5.3.3.

I had fun with that when this high-falutin' Washington DC Beltway Bandit risk assessment team came rolling in to do an assessment.  They grabbed the SSL banner (0.9.8 something) off some web servers and called an OMG emergency meeting with the system administrators and management about why we're running outdated versions of Apache and SSL.  After they presented their "findings" they all looked at me, and I said flatly "We don't use Apache here.  We use IHS." (IBM HTTP Server - based on Apache, but with IBM secret sauce.)  You could have heard a pin drop as they huddle and whisper and look silly.  Yeah, that was fun.  They hate me.  They should have done their research and asked a couple questions first.  Oh well.  Then I had to research the SSL thing and show the Red Hat Errata demonstrating the "old" version of SSL was patched against known vulnerabilities. 

As far as Centos and RHEL, I don't know why you assume CentOS would be a year or two later than RHEL.  This article indicates CentOS will be tightly coupled and more fluid than RHEL: http://www.zdnet.com/red-hat-reveals-centos-plans-7000027812/
"However, there's a firewall between RHEL and CentOS developers. The net effect is that CentOS will continue to lag a bit behind RHEL in releases. Even so, CentOS releases will be coming out on RHEL heels rather than weeks or months behind."

I'm amused that you are trying to plan 6-10 years out in the IT field.
</sarcasm>

Regards,

George Toft
On 5/6/2014 10:23 AM, keith smith wrote:

Hi,

I want to test some PHP code on future versions of PHP / MySql / MariaDB.

I'm running CentOS 6.5 that installs php 5.3.3-27 which is at it's end of life.  It is my understanding RHEL 6.x will always be using PHP 5.3.  Is that correct?  RHEL will be supported until Nov of 2020.  That is a long time to be running a PHP version that is at end of life.  I understand RH will back port any bug or security fixes to PHP 5.3 (which actually breaks the version numbering system).

It is my understanding RHEL will be based on Fedora 19.  I am downloading Fedora 19 now. I assume testing on Fedora 19 will get me in the ball park for RHEL 7.   RHEL 7 will come with MariaDB as it's default DB.  I assume I will not see RHEL 7 in the form of CentOS 7 for year or two?

I assume there will be several more releases of RHEL 6 since it will be supported for over 6 more years.

If I plan to stay with CentOS 6.x and if it will use the same MySql and PHP versions until end of life and if RHEL/CentOS 7 will be based on Fedora 19, I assume that is the only configurations I need to test on and I assume that will take me through 6 to 10 years.  Is this a fair expectation and a valid plan?

Any feed back and advice is much appreciated.  

Thanks!!
Keith




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