System Requirements Policy

Goals

The API gateway and all of the bundles should be runnable on a majority of systems without the user having to install extra repositories or requiring updates using third party packages.

Policy

• All libraries and bundles should try to support the following systems:

  • The latest Ubuntu release
  • The latest Debian Stable release that is older then one year
  • The latest Ubuntu LTS release that is older then one year
  • The latest Red Hat/Red Hat like release that is older then one year
  • The latest CentOS Stream release that is older then one year

  Rationale: The latest Ubuntu release to ease development and the one year limit to give users one year to update their system to the next stable release.

• Further more our PHP support range is limited by:

  • The PHP version range supported by the major Symfony version we use
  • The Symfony version we use needs to have active security support
  • Any other core PHP libraries we use need to have active security support (api-platform, etc.)

• Specific non-core bundles can require other PHP version ranges, in case some features can not reasonable be provided otherwise. This should be highlighted in the bundle documentation.

• Any requirements for external dependencies, like databases, reverse proxies, file servers, external services, should ideally also be provided by the systems listed above.

Further Resources

Links:

• https://symfony.com/releases#long-term-support-release
• https://endoflife.date/debian
• https://endoflife.date/ubuntu
• https://endoflife.date/almalinux
• https://endoflife.date/rocky-linux
• https://endoflife.date/oraclelinux
• https://endoflife.date/centos
• https://packages.debian.org/testing/php
• https://packages.debian.org/stable/php
• https://packages.debian.org/oldstable/php
• https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=php
• https://endoflife.date/api-platform
• https://endoflife.date/symfony
• https://endoflife.date/php

Example for how to list PHP versions provided by AppStream in Red Hat like distros and how to switch between them:

$ docker run -it quay.io/centos/centos:stream8 bash
$ dnf module list php
CentOS Stream 8 - AppStream
Name                Stream                 Profiles                                 Summary                             
php                 7.2 [d]                common [d], devel, minimal               PHP scripting language              
php                 7.3                    common [d], devel, minimal               PHP scripting language              
php                 7.4                    common [d], devel, minimal               PHP scripting language              
php                 8.0                    common [d], devel, minimal               PHP scripting language              
php                 8.2                    common [d], devel, minimal               PHP scripting language 

Hint: [d]efault, [e]nabled, [x]disabled, [i]nstalled
$ dnf module install php
$ dnf module switch-to php:8.2

History

• 2024-01-10: Dropped support for PHP 7.3, added support for PHP 8.3
• 2024-02-26: Dropped support for PHP 7.4 and PHP 8.0. This violates the Debian LTS policy by a few months, but we are forced to do this due to api-platform dropping support for PHP 7.4 and PHP 8.0.