Story: current PHP
This page is for technical journalists. Keeping a code base that started in the PHP 4 era on PHP 8.5 is a story about steady, visible maintenance.
Contents
- The story in one paragraph
- What is new, and when
- Facts you can print
- What not to claim
- Angles and headline ideas
The story in one paragraph
Exponential 6 supports PHP 8.0 to 8.5 (PHP 7.4 usable without support); PHP 8.0 is kept so that the stock PHP of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 runs it, and PHP 7.4 is usable without support from 6.0.15 for sites that cannot move yet. "Current releases are primarily aimed at easing the requirements to support current versions of the PHP language like PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6 and beyond php9" (README). The continuous integration runs the test suite on PHP 8.1 to 8.5 and checks that PHP 8.0 still boots on every push and pull request (PHP versions).
What is new, and when
| What | When | Source |
|---|---|---|
| PHP 8 in the setup wizard | December 2023 | December 2023 |
| PHP 8.4 in, PHP 7 out (6.0.7 the last for 7.4) | April 2025 | April 2025 |
| PHP 8.5 supported | December 2025 | December 2025 |
Facts you can print
| Fact | Source |
|---|---|
| PHP 8.0 to 8.5 supported, Velocity included (from its release 0.0.4.54) | PHP versions |
composer.json allows up to PHP 8.8 | same |
| CI on PHP 8.1 to 8.5, PHP 8.0 boot check | CI |
| 7x maintains patched forks of Zeta Components and submitted security pull requests upstream | The PHP stack it stands on |
What not to claim
| Do not say | Say instead |
|---|---|
| "Supports PHP 9" | The project aims at future versions; support is documented to 8.5 |
| "Rewritten for PHP 8" | The existing code was updated release by release |
| "Runs on PHP 7" (current releases) | Only up to 6.0.7 |
Angles and headline ideas
- "From PHP 4-era code to PHP 8.5."
- "Old code, new PHP: the maintenance nobody sees."
Related pages
- Story: a code base kept alive
- Objection: "PHP and modern technology"
- Feature stories: index
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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