Web server migration

Apache

Upgraded from 2.2 to 2.4. See Apache's own upgrade documentation for a full list of changes.

The semantics of Allow/Deny directives have changed -- we have ''mod_access_compat'' enabled which should restore the legacy syntax, though we recommend you migrate to the new Require syntax.

Logs

You'll now need to SSH to webserver.srcf.net to access logs -- you will find access.log and error.log in /var/log/apache2/user/<crsid> for your personal website, or /var/log/apache2/soc/<name> for a society website. Note that CGI error output should now consistently go to the corresponding error.log file (previously some types of output ended up in the main log at /var/log/apache2/error.log).

Proxy webservers

If you run your own webserver (e.g. gunicorn, nginx) and have Apache proxy to it via htaccess, these server processes need to be run from the webserver rather than the shell server. As above, SSH to webserver.srcf.net and run them from there.

PHP

Upgraded from 5.3 to 7.0. This jumps multiple minor versions -- the bulk of the changes can be found in PHP's own migration guide for 5.6 to 7.0, though see also the guides for 5.4, 5.5, 5.6.

MySQL

The original MySQL library, which provides methods with names starting mysql_, has been deprecated since 5.5, and removed completely in 7.x.

MySQLi provides a close replacement, with most original methods present but prefixed with mysqli_. You'll also need to pass a connection handle (the return value of mysqli_connect()) as the first argument to most of the remaining methods.

Sample MySQL library code:

mysql_connect("localhost", "<user>", "<password>");
$result = mysql_query("...");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) { ... }

Equivalent MySQLi code:

$conn = mysqli_connect("localhost", "<user>", "<password>");
$result = mysqli_query($conn, "...");
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) { ... }

ucam-webauth-php

Versions prior to 0.53 include a function call with an argument ignored in PHP 5.x but removed in 7.x. Error logs will contain something like:

PHP Warning:  gmmktime() expects at most 6 parameters, 7 given in .../ucam_webauth.php on line 388

The latest version can be obtained from GitHub.

php_override.ini

PHP is now run as an Apache module rather than CGI, so override files are no longer supported. You can however override settings using htaccess.

Example php_override.ini setting:

key = value

Equivalent htaccess setting:

php_value key value

PostgreSQL

The Postgres server has also moved to the new webserver. For websites connecting to a database, it's still accessible locally (socket connection) so access should be unaffected.

If you have scripts on the main shell server that access a Postgres database, these need updating to connect over TCP to hostname postgres. Ident auth is available so you still shouldn't need to provide a password.

Last modified on Monday Feb 28, 2022 by Richard Allitt