How to install php 5.2 in Ubuntu 18.04

Question

All the answers that I found are already outdated. I can not fix all dependencies by myself. Maybe someone has a guide on what to do to run php5.2?

Solution

this post: How to install PHP 5.2.x on ubuntu 14.04?

tells you how to install it on 14.04 (which is called "build from source" which you can look it up by). Should alsso work on 18.04 I think (but didn't try)

Easier method is running a virtual machine with older Ubuntu version installed (I'm suggesting 12.04 where 5.2 was still around).

another aproach is to run everything insider docker container, like this one: https://hub.docker.com/r/kuborgh/php-5.2/

but I'd follow other suggestions: your PHP is insecure and running anything production-like is going to eventually lead to a security breach and financial losses, even your boss should understand that and simply accept the upgrade process to PHP 5.6 at least.

Comments

[Thomas Ward]

5.2 is so old and insecure you shouldn't need to use it. Why do you need 5.2?

[Thomas Ward]

Unless their code is so obsolete it onyl works on PHP 5.2, in which case they've got a bigger issue.

[Miksser]

We still have support 5.2 = (And all programmers use 5.6+, which sometimes leads to compatibility problems. Therefore, we need to run the tests on 5.2.

[LeonidMew]

php.net/eol.php

[Miksser]

I tried to use the guide under ubunt 14.04. There is incompatibility of libxml2 libraries. Attempts to straighten it out without breaking php 7.2 have failed. Apparently, the truth remains only the docker.

[Jan Myszkier]

php before 5.6 was installed only under php so this will break your current default php package (7.2?). If you need to solve it quickly, I'd go with dedicated server machine running ubuntu 12.04 somewhere over the network. Otherwise - yes - docker.

[Calamity Jane]

No, saying he should install 5.6 is neither an answer nor helpful. Yes having to work with 5.2 sucks, but in some cases cannot be avoided. In my current company we have tons of legacy code running on 5.2 or 5.3. The applications will be either switched off or rewritten in php7.4 or php8 within the next 1-3 years, so our admin has exactly the problem mentioned here. Suggesting to use 5.6 doesn't help at this point at all.