Re: install default or latest version of php with pkg

On 14/10/2025 18:50, Andriy Gapon wrote:
> On 14/10/2025 19:45, Moin Rahman wrote:
>>
>>
>>> On Oct 14, 2025, at 18:36, Andriy Gapon <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> I am writing a recipe to configure a system for a particular purpose.
>>> I need to install some version of PHP, doesn't matter much which, but 
>>> it should be a recent one.  E.g., the latest available in ports or 
>>> the default version.
>>> I do not want to hardcode any version / prefix like, say, "php83" 
>>> (because it may be obsolete or unavailable in a few years).
>>>
>>> How could this be achieved with pkg?
>>
>> I do not know what actually you are trying to do or if I have understood
>> you correctly. But let's say if I need dokuwiki and I do not want to add
>> specific version I just do `pkg install www/dokuwiki` which will find
>> out the required php version suffix and install all the php requirements.
>> But if you need are using this for a custom application which is not in
>> the tree and you need to install specific php versions for those then I
>> believe you are out of options.
> Yes, it's for something that's not in ports.
> But maybe it could be put into ports with some effort...
> 
> Maybe it would be a good idea to have some PHP meta-ports that just 
> install default versions?
> 
> E.g., for Python there is a python3 package that installs a current 
> default python3.xx version as dependency and there is python package 
> that installs a current default pythonX (python3 currently) as a 
> dependency.

I think it always brings some complications. In the past, there was 
"php" as default (or maybe php5, don't remember it well, it was long 
time ago) and then for example php56 as newer port. But then it was 
problematic with upgrades where some "default" changed but user wanted 
to stay on older branch, because many applications was still dependent 
on an older PHP.

For your example with Python - "lang/python3" is not used as dependency 
for any port. Python applications depends of "default" or Makefile 
specified Python version. In analogy to your case with make a private 
port of PHP application - you cannot depend on lang/php (or lang/php8), 
because then it is hard to say which extensions you should install. Only 
in a rare case when you application doesn't need any PHP extensions, you 
"can" depend on fictional metaport lang/php8.

If you are writing some playbook or scripted setup, you can query 
available versions by pkg search, for example:

    # pkg search -x '^php8[0-9]-[0-9]'

Sort the results, tail -n1 and you have the latest available version. 
Then you can say which PHP extensions to install.

Kind regards
Miroslav Lachman