Difference between httpd and httpd-devel package on CentOS 5

Question

I'm trying to update PHP 5.1 to 5.3 on CentOS 5.10. On the server, httpd-devel is installed but trying to install php53 on CentOS 5, it wants to install httpd.

This is a production server so I need to know if it's safe to install httpd when httpd-devel is already installed. The php package (5.1.6) on CentOS 5 does not have the httpd dependency.

What is the difference between httpd-devel and httpd?

Solution 1

Looking at the contents of httpd-devel should give you a clue

rpm -ql httpd-devel | less

As you should see it is mostly header and other files that are useful for building binaries. It doesn't contain the http binaries themselves.

You really need to find out how your httpd was installed and attempt to work with it. Like I said in my comment you need a lab.

Solution 2

httpd-devel - The httpd-devel package contains the APXS binary and other files that you need to build Dynamic Shared Objects (DSOs) for Apache. If you are installing the Apache HTTP server and you want to be able to compile or develop additional modules for Apache, you need to install this package.

httpd - contains httpd web server binary.

Comments

[user9517]

I really wouldn't recommend doing any of this on a production server until you're sure of what you're doing and that means testing it in a lab.

[iSee]

Run yum info httpd and yum info httpd-devel and see for yourself.