CentOS - Apr 2018 - Centos 7 LAPP setup PHP 5 vs 7

Another questions regarding my new server setup.

As with the Postgresql setup, different pages describing setting up a Centos 
LAPP server have differing opinions about PHP versions.

The default distro's appear to still be installing PHP5 while some sites 
instruct on how to install PHP7.

I am porting my old server which must be 10 years old, running Fedora 9 and 
PHP5 onto the new server, so presumably sticking with PHP5 would be the 
easier option.

However, I am looking to give my new server as long a life as possible, so 
should I instead be looking at PHP7?

I have literally thousonds of lines of PHP code on my existing box. How much 
head ache am I going to have porting into either of the two new platforms? 
How much difference would PHP5 vs PHP7 be?

Opinions please

On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 8:49 PM, Gary Stainburn <gary at ringways.co.uk>
wrote:
> Another questions regarding my new server setup.
>
> [snip]
>
> The default distro's appear to still be installing PHP5 while some
sites
> instruct on how to install PHP7.
>
> I am porting my old server which must be 10 years old, running Fedora 9 and
> PHP5 onto the new server, so presumably sticking with PHP5 would be the
> easier option.
>
> However, I am looking to give my new server as long a life as possible, so
> should I instead be looking at PHP7?
>
[snip]

It mainly depends on your application, I think. And the level of
"support"
you want.
Anyway, the default in plain CentOS 7 is now version 5.4, based on 5.4.16.
To get PHP 7.0 or 7.1, but also newer minor version of 5.4 (currently
5.4.40) or 5.5 or 5.6, you have to enable the so-called Software
Collections.
See here:
https://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/SCL

There are then some "scl" commands to enable desired installed version
(eg
to have in default path ecc..), so that you can try them and find the more
suitable one.
More info here:
https://www.softwarecollections.org/en/docs/

HIH,
Gianluca