Change mysql/php version with script?

[joshribakoff]

Has anyone tried downloading all the different releases of the mysql source code and creating a .sh script to switch between them? Will it work well? I would imagine there would be issues with library linkage and compatibility? The issue I'm having is a client was running mysql 5.0.x and I was on 5.1.x - my tests pass on my server but not on his. Both my development machine and my continuous integration server where the tests run all use the latest. Do I have to purchase a server for every combination of software configuration I want my application to support? Or can it be emulated with virtual machines or something?

Same for PHP. I want to essentially have this happen:

) mysql 5.0.81 & php 5.3.1
) mysql 5.0.81 & php 5.3.2
) mysql 5.0.81 & php 5.3.3
) mysql 5.0.83 & php 5.3.1
) mysql 5.0.83 & php 5.3.2
) mysql 5.0.83 & php 5.3.3

Basically looping thru all combination, would I have to set up a virtual machine? Or would that even work?

[Rubberman]

There are a couple of issues with this that need to be considered. One are the PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable settings. The PATH environment tells a shell where to look for commands. The LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment tells an executable where to find shared libraries. So, in theory, you could have these things and all their shared libraries in their own sub-directories and by changing PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH the correct ones should be found. You can do that in a bash script, for instance.