[php-maint] Possible to include GMP in libapache2-mod-php5?

[Bryn Moslow]

Hello,
 
Debian and the packages generally do almost everything I need them to,
this is a wonderful thing that I give thanks for. I ran into an issue
today however with trying to set up a site that requires GMP functions:
 
http://www.swox.com/gmp/
 
I've worked around it temporarily by grabbing the source package for php
(apt-get source libapache2-mod-php5), the build deps (apt-get build-dep
libapache2-mod-php5), and then phpize'ing the gmp extension from within
the source directory. I just built the .so and copied it into the php5
lib directory and it seems to work so far.
 
This is great for development but maintaining it on a large cluster of
web servers has me a bit apprehensive. We use Debian because we trust
the developers to do the Right Thing and we know from experience that
the reputation for stability is well earned. In turn, we also trust the
security updates and generally only maintain the servers by making sure
cron-apt is installed and we pull down the latest and keep ourselves
secure. We've gotten along for several years using nothing but the
default Debian packages collection and this has kept us efficient and
productive as we're not in the business of running Linux (or anyone's
OS) and having to customize and maintain the base system.
 
The bad thing I most worry about is php5 being updated and the module no
longer loading and having to touch every machine whenever there's a php
update.
 
Ideally, I'd love to see an actual php5-gmp package or gmp added to the
compile-time options in the official package. Is this a possibility?
 
If not, is there an easy way I'm missing that we can automatically track
stable/etch and make sure we've got the latest security updates and also
include GMP in our PHP setup?
 
With the speed increases we've seen from using GMP functions, I'd be
surprised if nobody else was interested in this. Thanks for your time
and consideration.
 
Bryn Moslow
Valve Software
(425) 889-9642 x137
http://www.valvesoftware.com
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