Newest PHP, Varnish Cache, MySQL, NGINX, Node.js, and Git now in beta

 

October 24, 2018
Mike Guerette
Related topics:
Developer ToolsLinuxNode.js
Related products:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability Red Hat Software Collections 3.2 beta, which adds these components to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7:

  • PHP 7.2
  • Varnish Cache 6.0
  • MySQL 8.0
  • NGINX 1.14
  • Node.js 10
  • Git 2.18
  • Update of Apache HTTP server 2.4

These beta versions are available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (Devtools or RHSCL channel) for x86_64, s390x, aarch64, and ppc64le.  Read more details about each component in the "New Components details" section.

About Red Hat Software Collections

Twice a year, Red Hat distributes new versions of compiler toolsets, scripting languages, open source databases, and/or web tools providing application developers with access to the latest, stable versions. These Red Hat supported offerings are packaged as Red Hat Software Collections (scripting languages, open source databases, web tools, etc.), Red Hat Developer Toolset (GCC), and the recently added compiler toolsets Clang/LLVM, Go, and Rust. All are yum installable, and are included in all Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Subscriptions and most Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions. Most components are also available as Linux container images for hybrid cloud development across Red Hat platforms including: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat OpenStack, etc.

New Components details

PHP 7.2

This PHP 7.2 addition marks the second feature update to the PHP 7 series where performance is considerably improved; it comes with numerous improvements and new features:

  • Convert numeric keys in object/array casts
  • Counting of non-countable objects
  • Object typehint
  • HashContext as Object
  • Improve TLS constants to sane values

PHP 7.2 works on RHEL 7, all architectures.

Package name: rh-php72

Container image: rhscl-beta/php-72-rhel7

 

Varnish Cache 6.0

Varnish Cache 6.0 is a web application accelerator also known as a caching HTTP reverse proxy. It is installed in front of a web server that speaks HTTP and configured to cache the contents, has very high performance, and has a highly extensible built-in configuration language. Varnish 6.0 new features include:

  • HTTP/2 support - following an extended testing period, Varnish 6.0 now fully supports HTTP/2.
  • Support for Unix Domain Sockets (UDS), both for clients and for back-end servers
  • A new level of the Varnish Configuration Language (VCL), vcl 4.1
  • New and improved Varnish Modules (VMODs): vmod_directors, vmod_proxy, vmod_unix, vmod_vtc

Varnish Cache works on RHEL 7, all architectures.

Package name: rh-varnish6

Container image: rhscl-beta/varnish-6-rhel7

 

MySQL 8.0

MySQL 8.0 delivers across-the-board improvements designed to enable DBAs and developers to create and deploy the next generation of web, embedded, mobile and Cloud/SaaS/PaaS/DBaaS applications on the latest generation of development frameworks and hardware platforms.  

MySQL 8.0 highlights include:

  • Transactional Data Dictionary
  • SQL Roles
  • Default to utf8mb4
  • Common Table Expressions
  • Window Functions

MySQL 8.0 works on RHEL 7, all architectures.

Package name: rh-mysql80

Container image: rhscl-beta/mysql-80-rhel7

 

NGINX 1.14

NGINX 1.14.0 is the latest stable release for the project and includes a new mirror module for mirroring requests, HTTP/2 push support and limits the number of concurrent push requests, and a gRPC proxy module for passing requests onward to a gRPC server.

NGINX 1.14 works on RHEL 7, all architectures.

Package name: rh-nginx114

Container image: rhscl-beta/nginx-114-rhel7

 

Node.js 10

Node.js is a modern programming platform built on a JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices. Other features in the Node.js 10 release include:

  • Enhanced security.  
  • N-API (Node.js API), which moves from beta to a stable version, and provides a stable module API independent of changes in the V8 JavaScript engine underlying Node.js. The API helps module maintainers and production deployments, making upgrades easier.
  • JavaScript language improvements, including prototype.toString(), which now returns exact slices of source code text, and mitigations for side-channel vulnerabilities to prevent information leaks.
  • Error-handling improvements, with adoption of error codes to ease constant error-checking.
  • Performance boosts via V8, including for the async generator and array.
  • Increased visibility into code performance issues via trace events, with the Node.js 10 release.
  • An API in the Node.js 10 release allows user code to enable and disable trace events on demand at runtime, for improved flexibility in diagnosing issues in applications.

Node.js 10 works on RHEL 7, all architectures.

Package name: rh-nodejs10

 

Git 2.18

Git is an open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git includes features such as cheap local branching, convenient staging areas and multiple workflows that are not available in other version control systems.  Git allows and encourages developers to have multiple local branches that can be entirely independent of each other. The creation, merging, and deletion of those lines of development takes only seconds which is much faster than other Source Code Management systems. Git 2.18 features are:

  • The most significant feature in Git 2.18 is the introduction of its new wire protocol v2 that is designed to offer much greater performance. This new protocol is designed to be much faster and is already being used due to the significant performance benefits.
  • Git Large File Storage (LFS) replaces large files with text pointers inside Git and stores the file contents on a remote server.
  • The other Git 2.18 changes are mostly a wide assortment of other routine updates, bug fixes, and improvements including various other performance optimizations.

Git 2.18 works on RHEL 7, all architectures.

Package name: rh-git218

 

This component has been updated in Red Hat Software Collections 3.2

Update to Apache HTTP Server 2.4

Apache HTTP is a project of the Apache Software Foundation and is the number one http server on the internet. Updates to this Apache HTTP Server version 2.4 include:

  • Support for OpenSSL 1.0.2 and includes mod_md module.
  • For existing Apache 2.2.x users, migrating to 2.4 is quite easy as there are minimal configuration changes.
  • Using Apache 2.4, web developers can achieve the performance of other “fast” web servers without having to switch to newer webservers such as Nginx.

Apache HTTP Server 2.4 works on RHEL 7, all architectures, and RHEL 6.

It is still packaged as httpd24.

Container image: rhscl-beta/httpd-24-rhel7

 

For more information:

Last updated: November 1, 2023