Impossible to get newest version

[kohenkatz]

Currently, running pvm install 8.3 installs 8.3.13. However, the newest version on the 8.3.x branch is actually 8.3.14.

The problem is that this program only looks at the downloads listed at https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/archives/

This list never includes the newest version.

The same is true about 8.4.x - the newest is 8.4.1, but this program can only download 8.4.0.

I think there is a simple fix for this: always check for the requested version at https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/ before checking https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/archives/

Here's how this helps:

1. If the user only requested major.minor (no patch), the newest version is always listed at .../releases/
2. If the user requested major.minor.patch, it could still be the newest version, but even if it isn't, the only overhead is one additional API call.

A possible additional optimization could be to check https://windows.php.net/downloads/releases/releases.json instead of parsing the directory listing of the releases directory. That would mean there would be no need to filter out the "debug", "devel", and "test" downloads. Then check the archives directory only for explicitly-requested patch versions that aren't in the JSON file.

I'm going to try to find some time for a PR for this, but I was curious if anyone has any thoughts on it first.

[hjbdev]

Seems like a well thought out plan. If you can find time to put up a PR it I'd appreciate it!

[crabnky]

I think the correct url is https://downloads.php.net/~windows/releases/archives/ - as I can see it contains all versions. Can you please change it? I want to use pvm, but now I cannot install new versions of php.

[hjbdev]

thanks for this! fixed in the latest release

[crabnky]

Thanks!

[kohenkatz]

@crabnky That's a good link, where did you find it?

At the moment, the official website at https://windows.php.net/download/ is very behind, as is the JSON file that I originally pointed to; the last it has is from December!

[kohenkatz]

I'm guessing they stopped updating that site because they now have Windows downloads on the main site at https://www.php.net/downloads.php, but some documentation of that change would have been nice...

[crabnky]

I went to the https://www.php.net/downloads.php and examined links for available downloads there. :)