Is "PHP version switching" a downside for Laragon?

[toshiba]

I really love Laragon and would really want to use it for every thing and go away from Wamp64 which I consider is also good but maybe with less potential than Laragon.

My problem is that I have to deal with websites that require to run on PHP 5.6.X.

On Laragon website home page it states the following:

"This is the best web server software. (...). Laragon is very easy to use (switching PHP versions etc), light weight and the most important part is, (...) create virtual hosts feature and cmder." (@amirolzolkifli)

Also, I found this article:

https://medium.com/@oluwaseye/add-different-php-versions-to-your-laragon-installation-d2526db5c5f1

where @Oluwaseye explains how to add different PHP versions to your Laragon installation which sounds good.

It basically recommends to download the corresponding release from:

https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/

In my case I want PHP 5.6, then I picked this one:

php-5.6.38-Win32-VC11-x64.zip

But my problem is that when I restart Apache with the Laragon manager (and that PHP release included on the PHP container directory) it says there is a mismatch problem between the compilation of the Apache provided by Laragon which is "VC14-x64" and the compoilation of the PHP release above which is "VC11-x64".

Then I found the following link:

https://wiki.php.net/internals/windows/compiler

which says that it is not possible to compile "PHP 5.6.x" with "Visual C++ 14 (2015)" ("VC14") which is the compiler used to compile the Apache provided by Laragon.

So, I don't know if I have any option to use Laragon to run PHP 5.6.x websites?

Any suggestion about this?

Thanks!

[leokhoa]

@toshiba : Thank you for using Laragon. Sure, you can use PHP 5.6 with Laragon - In your case, just add Apache x64 & VC11.

Here is the link to download Apache VC11:
https://www.apachelounge.com/download/VC11/
You should download: https://home.apache.org/~steffenal/VC11/binaries/httpd-2.4.35-win64-VC11.zip

Here is my tutorial how to add Apache:
https://forum.laragon.org/topic/165/tutorial-how-to-add-another-apache-version

The process is very easy, just make sure PHP & Apache have the same CPU Architecture (Win 64) and complier (VC11)

[toshiba]

@leokhoa then do you recommend me to have two Apache versions and two PHP versions with a relation one to one?.

On the link: https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/

I don't see any PHP 7.x compiled with VC11.
All of them are compiled with either: VC14 or VC15.

So I cannot use Apache VC11 with PHP 7.x I think.

Angel.

[leokhoa]

@toshiba: You never see an official PHP 7.x compiled with VC11.
However, with Laragon you can use different Apache VCxx and PHP VCyy if you use PHP "Non Thread Safe"

[toshiba]

@leokhoa thank you!