What is the difference between these two PHP versions?

[Timeless]

Hey all - quick question about PHP Versions. I'm wanting to upgrade my Wordpress PHP version to the latest - but not sure what the difference is between 'PHP 7.2 (alt-php72)' vs 'PHP 7.2 (ea-php72)'?

I changed the PHP version to PHP 7.2 (alt-php72) as a test, and I got a 501 error, then changed it to PHP 7.2 (ea-php72) and it's working fine. Assuming that the PHP 7.2 (ea-php72) is the version I should be using, right?

[Tony]

Hello,

One is a PHP packaged by cPanel where you have absolutely no control over extensions. The alt-php ones you have control over the extensions so you can use select php version look at say PHP 7.1 and set specific extensions for it and save it. Any site that uses alt-php 7.1 would get those extensions and this is a new feature as of a few days ago. That being said our team discovered a bug where if you have too many extensions loaded it will throw a 503 error. We've implemented a fix for this already and it's propagating to all servers. In the next 24 hours roughly all servers alt-php should work as well from the multi php manager page.

[Draka]

Hi. How do I change extensions when using alt-php?

 

Do u recommend using ea or alt?

alt have php 7.3 while ea only have 7.2

[Tony]

We recommended alt-php*  as they support the ability to change the extensions while ea-php* do not. For changing the extensions go to select PHP version in cPanel then you'll see the ability to change the extensions for any PHP version we have available.

[Draka]

Thanks. Can I change for each domain? I use multiphp manager.

Is the default alt extensions the same as ea?

[Tony]

On 9/4/2019 at 11:13 AM, Draka said:

Thanks. Can I change for each domain? I use multiphp manager.

Is the default alt extensions the same as ea?

You can change each domain using the multi PHP manager. The default extensions are close to the same not necessarily identical as our default alt-php's due to the cPanel built PHP's not containing all the same modules.

[Draka]

How to change the extensions for addons domains?

[Tony]

23 minutes ago, Draka said:

How to change the extensions for addons domains?

You'd just go back to the select php version page pick the PHP version from the drop down you want to modify and then you can adjust the extensions.

[Draka]

Can I have some extensions for domain Y and other extensions on domain X?

Is the default extensions the same for ea and alt?

[Tony]

2 hours ago, Draka said:

Can I have some extensions for domain Y and other extensions on domain X?

Is the default extensions the same for ea and alt?

Any site using that specific PHP version would have the same extensions. If you add an extension to PHP 7.3 all sites using it would get it. The default extensions for EA/ALT are not the same and as such we always recommend using the alt versions as you have control over the extensions. The EA versions you do not.