How to enable Unicode properties support on a virtual private server running CentOS 5.2?

[dmat...@shaw.ca]

Hello,

I've been trying to reinstall Qubit on a virtual private server
running CentOS 5.2. After successfully enabling the mbstring
extension, I've ended up with this error screen on the Qubit system
checks:

System checks

Search index

* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.
* Utf8Num analyzer needs PCRE unicode support to be enabled.

My server is running the following pcre configuration:

PCRE version 6.6 06-Feb-2006
Compiled with
UTF-8 support
No Unicode properties support
Newline character is LF
Internal link size = 2
POSIX malloc threshold = 10
Default match limit = 10000000
Default recursion depth limit = 10000000
Match recursion uses stack

I've looked through numerous Google-found pages, including
documentation on http://www.pcre.org/, about how to enable Unicode
properties support. Unfortunately, the information I've found is all
fragmentary or assumes a level of knowledge beyond my own.

I've also discovered that although pcre is supposedly installed, I
don't seem to be able to access any of the necessary files to rebuild
it and enable Unicode properties support.

For example, when I try to find all the files beginning with pcre*,
this is the result:

bash-3.2# find / -name "pcre*"
find: WARNING: Hard link count is wrong for /proc/sys/net: this may be
a bug in your filesystem driver. Automatically turning on find's -
noleaf option. Earlier results may have failed to include directories
that should have been searched.
/var/cache/yum/base/headers/pcre-6.6-2.el5_1.7.i386.hdr
/var/cache/man/cat1/pcretest.1.bz2
/usr/share/doc/pcre-6.6
/usr/share/man/man1/pcregrep.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/pcretest.1.gz
/usr/bin/pcretest
/usr/bin/pcregrep

As you can see from the above, there's not even a man entry for pcre,
nor can I see where it's actually installed.

I'll be submitting a support ticket to my hosting provider, but I
suspect they'll tell me I'm on my own.

I did try a "yum groupinstall "Development Tools", as I read that was
one solution, but the hosting provider's security prevented the
command from completing.

Thanks,

David M.

[Jack Bates]

Hi David M - awesome hearing from you again : ) This is a very
detailed post - thanks! You've already done most of the analysis. I
looked into it, hoping there was a runtime php.ini setting that would
fix the problem - but from what I can tell, it does not depend on any
PHP runtime or compile time configuration. I added what I found to the
wiki, with a link to this thread:
http://qubit-toolkit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Installation#Utf8Num_analyzer_needs_PCRE_unicode_support_to_be_enabled

Please be encourage to clarify or correct what I wrote : )

I am familiar with Debian, where if I found this problem, I would file
a bug against the libpcre3 package reporting that it is built without
the --enable-unicode-properties option:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?pkg=libpcre3;dist=unstable

I explored the CentOS site briefly, but I couldn't find a directory of
packages or an issue tracker... Where can you find the source of the
CentOS PCRE package, to verify that it is built without --enable-
unicode-properties? Where is the CentOS issue tracker, so you can
check for an existing bug report?

> documentation onhttp://www.pcre.org/, about how to enable Unicode

[D.H. Mattison]

Feb 7, 2009

Thanks Jack. There's an executable called pcretest that lets me know the
configuration. The command is "pcretest -C", which results in

PCRE version 6.6 06-Feb-2006
Compiled with
UTF-8 support
No Unicode properties support

...

The CentOS Bug Tracker is here http://bugs.centos.org/main_page.php It's
accessed through the dropdown Support menu.

Someone's already filed a bug on this:
http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=3252 See also
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=457064

So, I guess my question now is: where does this pcre "spec" file reside?

I haven't yet submitted a support ticket to my hosting provider.

David M.

[David at Artefactual]

Hi David M!

Sorry that we haven't replied on this sooner - we've been busy with
making the Feb. 15 code freeze deadline, and we're not really sure
what advice to give you. Have you made any progress on your problem
in the meantime, or are you totally stuck?

I don't know much about CentOS but it's disappointing to see that
Redhat and the CentOS team don't seem to think that this is a high
priority. I did find one blog post about how to rebuild the RPM with
unicode properties support, but recompiling binaries is seldom as easy
as it looks in my experience. That said the article looks pretty well
written:
http://gaarai.com/2009/01/31/unicode-support-on-centos-52-with-php-and-pcre/

Hopefully your hosting provider is up for doing some tweaking of their
base CentOS install.

Regards,
David Juhasz

P.S. Did you see my post regarding CentOS and PHP (http://
groups.google.com/group/symfony-users/browse_thread/thread/
2f52573786754ab4?hl=en)? I thought it was a pretty good run down of
the pros and cons of CentOS as a symfony server environment. :)

On Feb 7, 5:10 pm, "D.H. Mattison" <dmatti...@shaw.ca> wrote:
> Feb 7, 2009
>
> Thanks Jack. There's an executable called pcretest that lets me know the
> configuration. The command is "pcretest -C", which results in
>
> PCRE version 6.6 06-Feb-2006
> Compiled with
>    UTF-8 support
>    No Unicode properties support
> ...
>

> The CentOS Bug Tracker is herehttp://bugs.centos.org/main_page.phpIt's

[DigitalArchivist]

Thanks for your suggestions on his problem David and Jack. As the
problem's not resolvable by me and the hosting provider (VPSlink.com)
was unwilling to do anything about it, I've switched to a much less
expensive shared hosting provider in Vancouver, BC. I've posted a new
thread about my biggest problem now with that solution, which once
again has me stymied.

David M.