NES for PHP 5 Trial

HeroDevs offers a trial version of NES for PHP 5. Use it to test the drop-in replacement with your application, extensions and configuration before you subscribe. The trial is release v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial. It contains the packages and the Windows zip of NES for PHP 5 release v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2, for the same platforms, built from PHP 5.6.40 with none of the security fixes. It is published once and is not updated.

No HeroDevs access token is required. The trial's files accept any username and password, and the examples below use HeroDevs and neverendingsupport.

Once installed, php -v shows PHP 5.6.40-nes-trial. PHP_VERSION_ID stays 50640, and extensions built for PHP 5.6 load as before.

Ubuntu

The packages are for Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 22.04 on x86_64. They keep the usual names (php5.6-cli, php5.6-fpm, libapache2-mod-php5.6 and the rest), paths and configuration files, and replace the php5.6 packages a host already has. Their version is 5.6.40+nes~trial5.6.2-1~ubuntu<release>, for example 5.6.40+nes~trial5.6.2-1~ubuntu22.04.

Download and verify

In an empty directory, download the signing key, the checksums and the repository for your Ubuntu release:

base=https://registry.nes.herodevs.com/bin/nes/php/v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial
auth="HeroDevs:neverendingsupport"
arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)
for f in RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes SHASUMS256.txt SHASUMS256.txt.asc "php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.ubuntu1604.$arch.repo.tar.xz"; do
  curl -fSLO -u "$auth" "$base/$f"
done

base=https://registry.nes.herodevs.com/bin/nes/php/v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial
auth="HeroDevs:neverendingsupport"
arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)
for f in RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes SHASUMS256.txt SHASUMS256.txt.asc "php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.ubuntu2204.$arch.repo.tar.xz"; do
  curl -fSLO -u "$auth" "$base/$f"
done

Then verify the downloads:

gpg --with-fingerprint RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes    # must show CA44E935A3995EB733AF292B18DD1E9212F3C6A2
gpg --import RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes
gpg --verify SHASUMS256.txt.asc SHASUMS256.txt
ls | awk 'NR == FNR { have[$0]; next } $2 in have' - SHASUMS256.txt | sha256sum -c -

Install

Add the repository, then upgrade the PHP packages the host has:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/nes-php
sudo tar -xJf php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.*.repo.tar.xz -C /opt/nes-php --strip-components=1
sudo cp /opt/nes-php/nes-php.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nes-php.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

On a host without PHP, install the packages you need instead, for example sudo apt-get install php5.6-cli php5.6-fpm php5.6-mysql.

Check the installation:

php -v

Remove the trial

Remove the trial packages, the ones whose version contains nes~trial, and the repository:

sudo apt-get purge $(dpkg-query -W -f '${db:Status-Abbrev} ${Package} ${Version}\n' | awk '$1 ~ /^i/ && $3 ~ /[.+]nes~trial/ && $2 != "php-common" { print $2 }')
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nes-php.list
sudo rm -rf /opt/nes-php

RHEL

The packages are for RHEL 6 and RHEL 7 on x86_64, and also serve CentOS 6, Oracle Linux 6, CentOS 7 and Oracle Linux 7. They have the standard names (php, php-cli, php-fpm, php-mysqlnd and the rest), paths and configuration files, and replace the PHP 5.6 packages a host already has. Their release is 0.trial.2.nes.el<RHEL version>, for example php-cli-5.6.40-0.trial.2.nes.el7.

Download and verify

In an empty directory, download the signing key, the checksums and the repository for your RHEL version:

base=https://registry.nes.herodevs.com/bin/nes/php/v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial
auth="HeroDevs:neverendingsupport"
arch=$(uname -m)
for f in RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes SHASUMS256.txt SHASUMS256.txt.asc "php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.el6.$arch.repo.tar.xz"; do
  curl -fSLO -u "$auth" "$base/$f"
done

base=https://registry.nes.herodevs.com/bin/nes/php/v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial
auth="HeroDevs:neverendingsupport"
arch=$(uname -m)
for f in RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes SHASUMS256.txt SHASUMS256.txt.asc "php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.el7.$arch.repo.tar.xz"; do
  curl -fSLO -u "$auth" "$base/$f"
done

Then verify the downloads:

gpg --with-fingerprint RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes    # must show CA44E935A3995EB733AF292B18DD1E9212F3C6A2
gpg --import RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes
gpg --verify SHASUMS256.txt.asc SHASUMS256.txt
ls | awk 'NR == FNR { have[$0]; next } $2 in have' - SHASUMS256.txt | sha256sum -c -

Install

Add the repository, then upgrade the PHP packages the host has (tar needs xz: sudo yum install xz):

sudo mkdir -p /opt/nes-php
sudo tar -xJf php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.*.repo.tar.xz -C /opt/nes-php --strip-components=1
sudo cp /opt/nes-php/nes-php.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/nes-php.repo
sudo yum update 'php*'

On a host without PHP, install the packages you need instead, for example sudo yum install php-cli php-fpm php-mysqlnd.

Check the installation:

php -v

Remove the trial

Remove the trial packages and the repository:

sudo yum remove $(rpm -qa --qf '%{NAME} %{RELEASE}\n' | awk '$2 ~ /\.nes\./ { print $1 }')
sudo rm /etc/yum.repos.d/nes-php.repo
sudo rm -rf /opt/nes-php

To go back to the PHP 5.6 packages you used before, install them again from their repository.

Windows

The zip is the thread-safe (TS) x64 build of PHP 5.6.40 for Windows Server 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025, made with Visual C++ 2012 (VC11), as NES for PHP 5's own zip is. It is php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.windows.x64.ts.zip, and its TRIAL-README.txt says first that it has no security fixes. It runs PHP from the command line, from IIS through FastCGI and from Apache, and its extension build is API20131226,TS,VC11.

Prerequisites

The zip needs the two Microsoft runtimes that Windows lists, which it does not include: the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 4 (x64) and the one for Visual Studio 2015-2026 (x64). To verify the download, install Gpg4win, which provides gpg.

Download and verify

In an empty directory, download the signing key, the checksums and the zip:

$base = "https://registry.nes.herodevs.com/bin/nes/php/v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial"
$auth = "HeroDevs:neverendingsupport"
foreach ($f in "RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes", "SHASUMS256.txt", "SHASUMS256.txt.asc", "php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.windows.x64.ts.zip") {
  curl.exe -fSLO -u $auth "$base/$f"
}

Then verify the downloads. gpg --verify must report a good signature, and the last command must print True:

gpg --show-keys .\RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes    # must show CA44E935A3995EB733AF292B18DD1E9212F3C6A2
gpg --import .\RPM-GPG-KEY-php-nes
gpg --verify .\SHASUMS256.txt.asc .\SHASUMS256.txt
$expected = (Select-String -Path .\SHASUMS256.txt -SimpleMatch "php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.windows.x64.ts.zip").Line.Split(" ")[0]
(Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 .\php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.windows.x64.ts.zip).Hash -eq $expected

Install

Unpack the zip to C:\php and add that folder to the system Path:

Expand-Archive -LiteralPath .\php-v5.6.40-nes-5.6.2-trial.windows.x64.ts.zip -DestinationPath C:\php
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "Machine") + ";C:\php", "Machine")

Open a new PowerShell window and check the installation:

php -v
Get-Content C:\php\TRIAL-README.txt -TotalCount 1

The first shows PHP 5.6.40-nes-trial (cli), the second Trial build: no security fixes, not for production. Configure PHP, IIS and Apache as Windows describes; the trial zip differs from the PHP 5.6.40 zip you use today in the same ways (Move from another PHP 5.6 zip).

Remove the trial

Stop the web server or application that uses PHP, remove the C:\php folder and remove C:\php from the system Path.

How the trial differs from NES for PHP 5

The trial's package versions sort below every NES for PHP 5 release's, so moving a host to a release is a normal upgrade.

Move to the supported product

To subscribe, contact HeroDevs or write to support@herodevs.com. Once you have an access token, follow the steps on Installation with your contact e-mail and token: download the current release's repository, replace /opt/nes-php with it, and upgrade (apt-get upgrade, or yum clean metadata then yum update 'php*', as that page shows for your platform). On Windows, download the current release's zip and replace the C:\php folder as Windows shows, keeping your php.ini. Nothing else in your configuration changes.