I have noticed that on my server running Debian 5.0 the PHP version is 5.2.6.
I would like to upgrade the PHP to the latest available version.
I have checked the Debain website and it seems the latest version is 5.3.2:
http://packages.debian.org/sid/php5
But when I run these commands in the shell:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
it says all my packages are up to date.
Any suggestions?
Howdy,
The latest version of PHP for Debian 5 is actually what you have there, 5.2.6. Your system is indeed up to date with the latest packages available to Debian 5.
The repository where you’re seeing PHP 5.3.2 is for what the Debian folks call “Sid” – which is the unstable version of their distribution.
It’s not a straight forward process to use Debian’s Sid packages on your Debian 5 server… in fact, I really wouldn’t recommend it 
Does an application you use require a newer PHP version? Unless you’re sure you need it, I might suggest sticking with the PHP version that comes with Debian 5.
If you really require a newer PHP version, there are some out there, but you have to be careful when doing those sorts of upgrades. Anytime you move away from standard, tested Debian packages, there’s a risk of breaking things
-Eric
Ok, thanks very much.
Do you have some time estimate about when could PHP 5.3 package get into stable repos? Could it be still this year?
Howdy,
When Debian 6 comes out, known as “Squeeze”, it will have PHP version 5.3.2 in it.
Debian does an excellent job of not actually stating when releases will occur
That said, Debian 6 recently went into a “freeze” mode, where they stop adding new features so that they can focus on stabilization, with a goal of releasing it soon.
You can read about the current status of Debian 6 here: