Upgrading to PHP 5.3 - solutions for legacy sites
<p>I am about to upgrade a couple of servers from PHP 5.1.6 to PHP 5.3.x, however, we host a number of old websites that would be time-consuming to fix in application code.</p>

<p>As I see it there are 2 solutions: </p>

<ul>
<li>stick the old sites on a separate, compatible server</li>
<li>make minimal (backwards-incompatible) fixes and turn off error reporting</li>
<li>fix all backwards-incompatible and deprecated features in application code</li>
</ul>

<p>The latter 2 options are not preferable given this would be very time-consuming -- bear in mind that there are no unit tests and such. The former will be at additional expense given we'd have to pay for and manage an additional box.</p>

<p>Are there any other options you might suggest trying, or <strong>what in your experience has been the best solution to managing legacy sites?</strong></p>

<p>Cheers </p>
