Download PHP 5.2.1

The PHP development team released a new version of their eponymous software package a few days ago done out. The program has been upgraded to version 5.2.1 and is there to provide of the necessary bug fixes and new features. PHP is a so-called hypertext preprocessor and is mainly used to generate dynamic content in the html serverside markup language. The software is often used in combination with the database program MySQL, with which the dynamic content of websites and forums can be served. The 5.2.1 release can be done via this page for a large number of operating systems. A portion of the release notes highlighting the major changes is published below:

The PHP development team would like to announce the immediate availability of PHP 5.2.1. This release is a major stability and security enhancement of the 5.X branch, and all users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to it as soon as possible.

The key improvements of PHP 5.2.1 include:

• Several performance improvements in the engine, streams API and some Windows specific optimizations.
• PDO_MySQL now uses buffered queries by default and emulates prepared statements to bypass limitations of MySQL’s prepared statement API.
• Many improvements and enhancements to the filter and zip extensions.
• Memory limit is now always enabled, this includes Windows builds, with a default limit of 128 megabytes.
• Added several performance optimizations using faster Win32 APIs (this change means that PHP no longer supports Windows 98).
• FastCGI speed optimized build of PHP for Windows made available for download.
• About 180 bug fixes.