OCI support in PHP is dead

[Victor Sudakov]

Matthew Seaman wrote:
> > The databases/php5-oci8 port exists no more, and databases/php52-oci8
> > is marked as vulnerable.
> > 
> 
> Oracle 8 is pretty obsolete now.  Now, the only options for getting more
> up to date support are
> 
>    -- persuading Oracle to release eg. an Oracle Instant Client package
>       for FreeBSD
> 
>    -- somehow being able to use the Linux client software under
>       emulation.
> 
> I've no idea what Oracle's response to the first option would be, but I
> suspect their response might well be that they won't get enough return
> to justify the cost of producing a FreeBSD native client.
> 
> The second option looks pretty difficult to me -- making a PHP shared
> object that links to a Linux shlib but that is itself linked into
> various PHP applications.

I suspected that databases/linux-oracle-instantclient-basic is
virtually useless.


> 
> The future looks Postgresql shaped to me.
> 

I don't believe so. Our in-house sites use Postgres, but sometimes
they have to interact with commercial systems (ERP, NetID etc)
and I don't envision commercial vendors moving from Oracle to Postgres
any time soon. 

I even considered running sqlplus via ssh but this is too ugly and not
compatible with PHP frameworks. Seems that FreeBSD has lost yet
another niche in our company. Which is a real pity because Linux is a
pain in the ass and Solaris is not free.

-- 
Victor Sudakov,  VAS4-RIPE, VAS47-RIPN
sip:sudakov at sibptus.tomsk.ru