Posted by hansBKK on 04/03/07 19:25

Schraalhans Keukenmeester <bitbucket@invalid.spam> wrote in
news:46123f95$0$325$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl:


> All the issues regarding functions allowing access to the host os's
> commands (the exec and suexec family etc) don't have to be a
> dealbreaker. Just beware if _you_ can use them, so can all the other
> customers on that server. How you use them yourself (if at all) is

Excellent point - for when I'm ready to "go public" with a site


> phpinfo() tells you a whole lot about the server's features and ini

Yes, I'm currently asking my shortlist for both v4 and v5 phpinfo urls.
So far I've been able to find where most of my issues are at least set
to by default.

> The 'auto' select feature between 4 and 5 at first seemed brilliant to

Well, allowing it to be set per directory/site by .htaccess, and/or by
file extension (.php5) seems to give me full control - I haven't come
across anybody claiming anything "automatic" in picking what version to
run.

> Things like a preset max memory limit never have been a burden for me
> yet. In a shared environment I'd be surprised to find I could change
> it myself.

Seems to be allowed with many hosts - of course if your account as a
whole is using too much RAM (or CPU, MySQL connections, etc.) then most
will pull the plug on you.

Key differentiators in my evaluation here are:

A) how the host defines "too much" (the big oversellers seem to define
it as "whoever's preventing us from loading another 200 low-traffic
static sites on this box")

B) do they attempt to work with you before suspending your site, let you
disable the application causing the problem or upgrade to VPS/dedicated.
(Apparently some hosts don't even notify the site owner they've been
suspended, they only find out if/when they happen to notice, or get
emails from their regular visitors asking what's going on!)

These kinds of issues are of course a LOT more important that whether
I'm allowed to switch globals on and off <G>

Thanks again for your detailed comments, I'm learning fast!

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