[imp] Documentation, Pear Log Module, Zlib issue

[Jon Parise]

On Mon, Sep 16, 2002 at 02:49:55AM -0500, Don wrote:

> I feel the horde/imp documentation should spell out a lthe requirements for 
> PHP a little better.
> 
> Maybe like stating that you need to compile php with the command line 
> interface, the pear Log module, and how to do so
> , its quite easy, but for the clueless and lazy( like me), its a lot of 
> extra digging around, that a few extra lines of install docs could solve 
> real quick.

Please review and make suggestions based on the current documentation:

    http://cvs.horde.org/co.php/horde/docs/INSTALL

I think the steps there are fairly complete.  Specific suggestions
would be appreciated.
 
> its taken me a couple days to figure out all of it. including reinstalling 
> zlib's rpms.
> for some reason they just required being reinstalled.  PHP kept saying 
> couldnt locate zlib. so i just did a
> rpm -Uvh zlib*.rpm --force --nodeps  :-)
> no more argument...

That's lousy, but I don't think it's something that we (the Horde
team) needs to document.  It seems like an isolated case.
 
> I compiled php and apache-ssl from scratch from the latest sources. So far 
> so good.

[apache / php stuff snipped]

I maintain the view that we can't be responsible for our user's
problems with Apache and PHP.  We understand that their required for
our software to work, and they're both complicated beasts to compile,
install, and configure, but they both have active support communities
and thorough documentation.

I say this because I've read a lot of users' comments about how
difficult our software is to install and, often, they cite trouble
with Apache and PHP as faults against the Horde Project.  I think
that's kind of unfair to us.

Of course, this is all my opinion; other members of the Horde team may
or may not agree.
 
> The results of horde and imp have been good, after I got the issue of no 
> pear Log module figured out, that is why I kept getting the blank page on 
> login, and no logout ability..
> 
> to fix it was simple, I just needed to run
> 
> pear install Log
> 
> but my default compile of php had no command line interface, so after 
> RTFMing for a while and searching the archives, I figured out i just needed 
> to leave off the --with-apache crap.
> and add in --enable-cli and add in zlib. then pear worked to be able to add 
> in the Log module. now everything is working smoothly.

It's unfortunate that we have this kind of dependency with PHP / PEAR.
It seems probable that the next major release of PHP (to be named 4.3)
will have much better integration with PEAR.  That means that the PEAR
command line tools will work "out of the box" without the need for
users to hack the thing into submission.
 
> Now to get the CVS versions working. I need to get the PGP support working 
> for the boss before he kicks my ass again :-)

Be sure to keep up to date with both the Horde CVS mailing list and
the various mailing lists.  The CVS code changes often, which in turn
generates a lot of FAQs.

-- 
Jon Parise (jon@horde.org) :: The Horde Project (http://horde.org/)