Php – How to install PHP 5.3 with MSSQL Support on SUSE Enterprise Server 11

XAMPP does some hacking that is not strictly safe to run on a web facing server to make it happen

is there any reason you cant run 2 php binaries on your system and call the older version for the site that needs the mysql4 db, is there also any reason the prebuilt version cant be upgraded or replaced? surely the app can be broken away from the DB in such a way it doesnt need its own prebuilt version?

the other option would be to put the mysql4 app on a VM on the server to run an older version of php, and then you could run latest versions of mysql and php for your other sites

Assuming you're using the RHEL5 php53 packages:

# yum install php53-pdo

If you're still using the default RHEL5 PHP 5.1 RPMs then you first uninstall them all, then install everything in the php53 chain that you think you'll need.

# yum search php53

However, the RHEL php 5.3 RPMs do not support either PEAR or PECL. They're also missing some other php extensions that are available with the older RPMs. If you need any of those packages you either get to install them yourself (from source), find another repo you think you can trust, or bite the bullet and go to RHEL6. If you go with RHEL's php53 package chain, you'll absolutely want to test all of your code still works. The testing overhead may actually make it easier to go with RHEL6.