[documentation] need help with PDO requirement

[adept digital evolution]

On 08-21-2009 6:07 AM, Victor Kane wrote:
> I googled on "install PDO on Centos" and got several sites like the 
> following, which advises not to install from scratch but rather make 
> use of the package manager, yum:
>
> http://karoshiethos.com/2008/07/24/installing-pdo_mysql-on-centos/
>

thank you Victor, and I had  certainly tried Google before asking on 
this list.

the page you point to is completely over my head/beyond my experience.

like I said, I have no experience administering Unix servers. I have a 
VPS account with WHM & CPanel. I have followed the instructions on that 
page but OMIGOD was that scary since if I blow up my web server I have 
no idea what i'm doing!!

I honestly think this new PDO requirement will send 99% of the general 
public packing (i.e., looking for something to use besides Drupal).

Also, we should add to the very beginning of the installation guide, in 
the Requirements, big text warning that folks with shared hosting 
accounts who cannot configure php on their servers cannot install Drupal!!



So with my limited knowledge and many gulps and beads of sweat I have 
followed the instructions on the page you point to above. This part 
scares me now:
# PHP_PDO_SHARED=1 pecl install pdo_mysql
 because after following the instructions I find comments on forums out 
there such as, "If I remember well, if you build the PDO extension as 
"shared" then you HAVE TO build the mysql-pdo, sqlite-pdo etc as shared 
too. Also you'll maybe have to recompile both php and mysql " Oh, my, 
what have I gotten myself into?!

Following those instructions was very complex and most folks would not 
make their way through. Because most folks are like  me and have some 
WHM/Cpanel sort of server, and there are about 20 different php.ini 
files. The one in usr/lib is a symlink. I don't even know how to tell 
where a symlink points to. Finally after doing a "locate php.ini" I 
double-checked mod dates in my ftp client and picked the most recently 
modified copy of php.ini. Restarted Apache using the button in WHM.

Then I had to go Googling around to learn how one views phpinfo(), made 
the page, uploaded it to my server, and now I run into a question I 
cannot solve because even with my devotion to helping make the docs work 
for folks like me I HAVE JUST ABOUT HAD IT.

In my phpinfo() results I see this in the "Configure Command" row of the 
table:
> './configure' '--disable-pdo' '--enable-bcmath' '--enable-calendar' 
> '--enable-ftp' '--enable-gd-native-ttf' '--enable-libxml' 
> '--enable-magic-quotes' '--enable-sockets' '--prefix=/usr/local' 
> '--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs' '--with-freetype-dir=/usr' 
> '--with-gd' '--with-imap=/opt/php_with_imap_client/' 
> '--with-imap-ssl=/usr' '--with-jpeg-dir=/usr' '--with-kerberos' 
> '--with-libxml-dir=/opt/xml2/' '--with-mysql=/usr' 
> '--with-mysql-sock=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' '--with-png-dir=/usr' 
> '--with-ttf' '--with-xpm-dir=/usr' '--with-zlib' '--with-zlib-dir=/usr'

Further down the page there is now a PDO section that shows the 
pdo_mysql driver is loaded.

But I'm imagining that I have to edit some document to change 
"--disable-pdo" to "--enable-pdo". Where is that doc. In my earlier 
message I noted: 'I have seen references to something like 
"./configure". What is that? Where do I find it? '

so,


I have seen references to something like "./configure". What is that? 
Where do I find it? How do I edit it? I tried typing "locate 
./configure" at the command prompt but that didn't work to help me find 
where to do this.

thanks

kazar