Version 11.36 Release Notes

Downgrade from 11.36

When cPanel & WHM version 11.36 is installed, it will not be possible to downgrade to a previous version of cPanel & WHM.

Upgrade to 11.36

In cPanel & WHM version 11.30, we introduced the concept of "blockers." Blockers are checks that are performed before a version change takes place. These checks review your system for possible compatibility issues with the desired upgrade.

New requirements for disk space on all cPanel version changes, including new installs

In cPanel & WHM version 11.36, when the upcp script needs to upgrade to a new version, upcp will stage necessary new files to download locally before upcp overwrites any existing files. This practice helps to ensure that a partial update does not break your current install. As a result of this stage/commit procedure, we require 1.6GB of disk space for /usr/local/cpanel before we allow an upgrade, update, or new install to begin.

Browser compatibility

Updates to cPanel & WHM version 11.36 were tested in the following operating systems:

• Windows 7
• Mac OS 10.6, 10.7, 10.8

Updates to cPanel & WHM version 11.36 were tested and are compatible with the following browsers:

• Google Chrome 20 and above. Get the latest version of Google Chrome.
• Mozilla Firefox 12 and above. Get the latest version of Mozilla Firefox.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and 9. Get the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Updates to cPanel & WHM version 11.36 were not tested, but have limited compatibility with the following browsers:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and 7
• Opera 12

• Safari® 5.1 and above

  Note:

  In these browsers, specific features related to email are supported. The pages in cPanel & WHM 11.36 will likely function, but there may be minor defects or inconveniences related to specific functionality.

Tweak Settings Update

cPanel PHP loader

In cPanel & WHM version 11.36, the cPanel PHP loader option in the PHP tab under Tweak Settings changed. Now, these options are checkboxes. Users are able to select various combinations between ioncube, sourceguardian, and zend.

Prior to cPanel & WHM version 11.36, the options were buttons.

Security Tokens

Security tokens can no longer be configured via WHM's Tweak Settings. However, system administrators can still configure security tokens via the command line. In a later version of cPanel & WHM, security tokens will always be enabled. When this change occurs, users will not have the ability to disable security tokens.

Display File Usage information in cPanel stats bar (inode count)

Introduced in cPanel & WHM version 11.36, this item shows the number of inodes (files and directories) that a cPanel user's account has used. This information will show in the cPanel stats bar as File Usage.

Removals in 11.36

Removal of makecpphp

The makecpphp script is no longer supported. PHP pages served through cPanel and WHM interfaces will always use the PHP located in the /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin directory. If you want to customize the PHP that cPanel uses, you should customize the cpanel-php53 RPM.

We have made attempts to fix the problematic PHP files that we used to ship. However, some PHP files may still be shipped with cPanel & WHM version 11.36. Since files in the /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty folder are not owned by an RPM and are not in use by their corresponding applications, these files may be manually removed.

Additionally, the /var/cpanel/usecpphp/ flag file will no longer be used.

install/*.pm removals

As of cPanel & WHM version 11.36, the following items have been removed:

• install/EximUp.pm

• install/GD.pm

• install/perlmods

• install/PerlMods.pm

• install/PuTTY.pm

• install/Re2c.pm

• install/RRDTool.pm

• install/Spam3.pm

• install/StaticSTunnel.pm

RPM Reinstall Feature

The ability to reinstall an RPM was removed from the Install a RPM screen in WHM. This feature was removed because of cPanel's extensive use of the /yepc/upconf/ include statement.

ImageMagick Support

As of cPanel & WHM version 11.36, we have removed the installimagemagick script from the cPanel & WHM system. We now provide a binary RPM package that will be used with cPanel & WHM. This package installs ImageMagick to the /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty prefix.

For instructions on how to install ImageMagick, read our Apache Documentation.

Deprecated cPanel Modules

While calls to Cpanel::cPPHP subroutines still return successfully in cPanel & WHM version 11.36, they will now log deprecation messages to the error log with a stack trace.

Instead of the Cpanel::cPPHP module, we encourage you to use the Cpanel::Binaries module. Cpanel::Binaries is a module that works similarly to the Cpanel::FindBin module. The FindBin module looks for binaries outside of /usr/local/cpanel whereas Cpanel::Binaries is used specifically for binaries that are installed in /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin from cPanel RPMs.

Changes to Perl

Reduction of support for /usr/bin/perl

cPanel & WHM will no longer update Perl modules or install new Perl modules to usr/lib or /usr/local/lib If you have scripts that need to work with cPanel code, we recommend you make the following changes to the top of your Perl scripts. This modification will allow the scripts to work with all cPanel installs

For example:

#!/bin/sh                                                                                                                                                                                               
 eval 'if [ -x /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl ]; then exec /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl -x -- $0 ${1+"$@"}; else exec /usr/bin/perl -x $0 ${1+"$@"}; fi;'
   if 0;
#!/usr/bin/perl

New installs of cPanel will not build Perl from source or touch the Perl system.The installer located on the cPanel mirrors is deprecated and should not be used on cPanel & WHM version 11.36 or newer. cPanel & WHM will no longer use this installer.

Changes to binaries may affect monitoring software

The locations for the Perl and PHP binaries that cPanel & WHM use have changed. As a result of these changes, the ps output for any applications that use these binaries may be different. We highly encourage system administrators to review their monitoring configuration if this data is utilized to monitor software. System administrators need to make sure that these changes will not cause their monitoring software to malfunction.

For example, in cPanel & WHM version 11.34, the process information for SpamAssassin would resemble the following:

root      3076  0.0  0.9  41644 38636 ?        Ss   Jun28   0:12 /usr/bin/spamd -d --allowed-ips=127.0.0.1 --pidfile=/var/run/spamd.pid --max-children=5

Now, in version 11.36, the same output resembles the following:

root      3044  0.0  6.0  38004 30796 ?        Ss   Jun29   2:10 /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/perl/514/bin/spamd -d --allowed-ips=127.0.0.1 --pidfile=/var/run/spamd.pid --max-children=3 --max-spare=1

Perl Module Magic User Loader /usr/bin/perl deprecation

cPanel & WHM no longer modifies /usr/bin/perl Instead, the Perl Module Magic User Loader is located at /usr/bin/perlml This allows /usr/bin/perl to remain untouched from the original install. System administrators who wish for this functionality to work properly will need to change the #! in all CGI scripts from #!/usr/bin/perl to #!/usr/bin/perlml

WHM's Install a Perl Module interface includes a deprecation message for the Perl Module Magic User Loader. Users can still disable the Magic Loader, but they cannot enable it.

Modules previously provided by checkperlmodules

As of cPanel & WHM version 11.36, cPanel no longer uses the /usr/bin/perl binary or supports the /scripts/checkperlmodules script. In addition, Perl modules will not be updated daily. Despite this change, systems that upgrade to version 11.36 can still utilize the modules previously provided by checkperlmodules

When a system administrator completes a new install, they will have the option during the WHM Getting Started Wizard to install modules previously provided by the /scripts/checkperlmodules script. System administrators can perform the same action with the following command:

/scripts/perlinstaller Task::Cpanel::Core

In either case, it will be the responsibility of the system administrator to maintain these modules (as in updates and upgrades).

For system administrators who do not want to keep nor maintain the Perl modules previously installed by checkperlmodules (via CPAN), they can maintain their modules via the OS distribution.

Changes to pureauth

The executable Perl script pureauth is no longer provided with the Pure-FTPd RPM. pureauth is now shipped with cPanel & WHM. pureauth is now located at /usr/local/cpanel/bin/pureauth

Scripts

New scripts in the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts directory

• check_cpanel_rpms — This script validates cPanel-managed RPMs. This script provides a way to reinstall these RPMs if they have been altered.

Updated scripts

• /scripts/vps_optimizer — The Perl 5.8.8 installer has been removed from this script.

Script removals

We removed certain scripts as a result of the new RPM management system. Scripts were removed if the following were true:

• the scripts were binary updaters for files that are now provided by RPMs which come from either the local distro or cPanel or

• the scripts were fixers which attempted to alter files that are now RPM controlled

The following scripts have been removed:

• bin/buildwebalizer

• bin/checkgd

• bin/checkphpv

• bin/docheckgd

• bin/low_mem_mods

• bin/rrdtest

• bin/rrdtoolcheck

• bin/rrdtoolinstall

• bin/rrdtool_loader_check

• etc/.webalizer201up

• scripts/after_perl_upgrade

• scripts/check_dbi

• scripts/checkdeadperlso

• scripts/checkgd

• scripts/checkimagemagick

• scripts/checklibssl

• scripts/checkmakeconf

• scripts/check_storable

• scripts/cleangd

• scripts/cleanimagemagick

• scripts/cleanmd5

• scripts/cleanversion

• scripts/fix_sa_compile

• scripts/fixspamassassinfailedupdate

• scripts/fontconfigfix

• scripts/ftpcheck

• scripts/fetchgd

• scripts/fetchimagemagick

• scripts/fixbinpath

• scripts/fixmysql

• scripts/fixproftpddupes

• scripts/installcgipm

• scripts/installcpbsdpkg

• scripts/install_cppkg

• scripts/installdbi

• scripts/installgd

• scripts/installimagemagick

• scripts/installspam

• scripts/makecpphp

• scripts/netftpsslpatch

• scripts/patch_authen_libwrap

• scripts/patch_bsd_resource

• scripts/patch_dbd_mysql

• scripts/patch_dbi

• scripts/patch_digest_sha1

• scripts/patch_errno

• scripts/patch_net_dns

• scripts/patch_storable

• scripts/patch_time_hires

• scripts/patch_xml_libxml

• scripts/patch_xml_libxml_common

• scripts/patch_rrds

• scripts/patch_xml_libxml_error

• scripts/proftpd128

• scripts/rrdtoolinstall

• scripts/safeimagemagicktester

• scripts/setupmakeconf

Script deprecations

/scripts/updatenow and /scripts/check_cpanel_rpms replaced the scripts below. The scripts below still exist in cPanel & WHM version 11.36. Now, the scripts only print a deprecation message to guide system administrators to the proper utilities and documentation. The scripts exit with a system exit value of 1:

• /scripts/bandminup

• /scripts/checkperlmodules

• /scripts/courierup

• /scripts/dovecotup

• /scripts/eximup

• /scripts/ftpup

• /scripts/imapup

• /scripts/mydnsup

• /scripts/mysqlup

• /scripts/nameserverup

• /scripts/nsdup

• /scripts/checksyspkgsetup

RPMs in 11.36

cPanel manages the RPMs it builds and ships with its own package management system. We refer to this as the rpm.versions system. The data file for this system is stored in the /usr/local/cpanel/etc/rpm.versions file.

Changes to the RPMs in cPanel & WHM version 11.36 offers several benefits:

• fresh installs will take 30% less time to complete
• upgrades will take less time to complete
• the rpm.versions system will offer a simple way to deploy custom software directly throughout the cPanel & WHM installation and upgrade process
• problems caused by automated source builds in wildly diverse environments will be removed
• to reinstall Perl is a simpler process
• applications and dependencies shipped with cPanel & WHM will be in one location (/usr/local/cpanel)

RPMs controlled after upgrade from 11.34

Approximately 20,000 files will be controlled by RPMs.

Vendors and system administrators can modify RPMs

Vendors (third parties) and system administrators can modify the corresponding RPMs provided by cPanel. Vendors can modify RPMs via the /usr/local/cpanel/etc/rpm.versions.d/*.versions set of files. System administrators can modify RPMS via the /var/cpanel/rpm.versions.d/local.versions directory.

local.versions directory

The local.versions directory will override any corresponding settings set by cPanel or third parties. This directory can be considered the "master file."

cpupdate.conf partially migrated to local.versions

cpupdate.conf partially converted to local.versions in cPanel & WHM version 11.36. The local.versions file in the rpm.versions system is where system administrators can make customizations.

Since all RPMs are now managed by the rpm.versions system, system administrators can no longer disable updates to the third-party RPMs that cPanel distributed before version 11.36. This change will affect:

• Bandmin
• Courier
• Dovecot
• Exim
• FTP
• MySQL
• Python
• NSD

The following entries are managed by the cpupdate.conf configuration file. These entries are not managed by the rpm.versions system.

• CPANEL
• RPMUP
• SARULESUP
• UPDATES

Updated RPMs

The following are newly provided RPMs from cPanel that used to be installed from source tarballs located at /usr/local/cpanel/src/3rdparty :

• cpanel-analog
• cpanel-awstats

• cpanel-cairo
• cpanel-fontconfig
• cpanel-freetype
• cpanel-glib
• cpanel-ImageMagick
• cpanel-libmcrypt
• cpanel-libxml2
• cpanel-mysql-libs
• cpanel-pango
• cpanel-pcre
• cpanel-pixman
• cpanel-postgresql-libs
• cpanel-rrdtoo
• cpanel-userperl
• cpanel-webalizer
• cpanel-wrap
• cpanel-yui

Changes to RPM package names

In cPanel & WHM version 11.36, we renamed MySQL RPMs to include the major version of the package. In previous versions of cPanel, all MySQL RPMs had the same package name. For example, on a 32-bit system, previous RPMs would resemble the following:

$>rpm -qa|grep MySQL|sort
MySQL-client-5.1.63-1.i386
MySQL-devel-5.1.63-1.i386
MySQL-server-5.1.63-1.i386
MySQL-shared-5.1.63-1.i386
MySQL-test-5.1.63-1.i386

In version 11.36, the packages have been renamed to follow the MySQL${VER}-subpackagename format. The following examples show the package names in 11.36:

$>rpm -qa|grep MySQL|sort
MySQL-client-5.1.63-1.i386
MySQL-devel-5.1.63-1.i386
MySQL-server-5.1.63-1.i386
MySQL-shared-5.1.63-1.i386
MySQL-test-5.1.63-1.i386

Legacy support for cpanel.config

Due to legacy support reasons, cpanel.config will continue to control the following legacy RPM targets:

• MySQL
• nsd
• proftpd
• pure-ftpd
• courier
• dovecot

RPM downloads checked against MD5 files

The RPM installation system now checks the downloaded package's MD5 files. If the retrieved hash number for the MD5 file does not match the corresponding RPM, then the RPM installation will fail instantly.

Exclude functionality for cpanelsync

Many files previously distributed directly via cpanelsync are now provided via cPanel RPMs. As a result, system administrators are no longer able to block changes to these files with /etc/cpanelsync.exclude nor /etc/cpanelsync.no_chmod

cPanel PHP Extension Support

In cPanel & WHM version 11.36, we use an RPM-managed PHP. As a result, phpextensionmgr is not ideal to manage the extensions for cPanel's PHP. phpextensionmgr is now a deprecated method. ionCube, SourceGuardian, and Zend Optimizer are the three extensions used to parse encoded PHP; they are now always installed on cPanel systems. You can activate or deactivate these extensions, in WHM's Tweak Settings interface.

For backwards compatibility, when scripts/phpextensionmgr is called for either /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty or /var/cpanel/3rdparty then phpextensionmgr will assume that the caller wants Tweak Settings enabled for that extension. As a result, phpextensionmgr will automatically enable Tweak Settings.

Update Config will no longer disable updates for cPanel packages (RPMs)

System administrators can no longer disable the /scripts/sysup script from nightly runs. This script assures that all distro-provided RPMs required for cPanel to function are installed. Without this script, cPanel-provided RPMs cannot be installed.

After an upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 11.36, cpupdate.conf will no longer control updates and installs for the RPMs below.

• Bandmin
• Courier
• Dovecot
• Exim
• FTP
• MySQL
• Python
• NSD

Feature Manager

In cPanel & WHM version 11.36, the Feature Manager includes the following additions:

• Trust X-PHP-Script
  • This feature trusts messages that are from the user nobody when the messages are sent with X-PHP-Script headers. This feature also enables the mail server to determine the true sender.
  • This feature was available in version 11.34, but it was labeled as "experimental."

• Query Apache
  • This feature will delay the Apache server in order to determine the true sender of a message. This action will take place when the user nobody sends the message.
  • This feature was available in version 11.34, but it was labeled as "experimental."

• Email Auto Discovery
  • This feature allows Thunderbird and Outlook to auto configure email settings.

Service Manager update

In cPanel & WHM version 11.36, the Service Manager no longer uses the cpupdate.conf file to determine if a service is disabled. Instead, users can use the rpm.version file.

Updatenow

scripts/updatenow updates all cPanel & WHM files that have changed between releases. scripts/updatenow is not designed to run directly; scripts/updatenow executes when you call the scripts/upcp process.

Mobile login

Users who log into cPanel & WHM version 11.36 through a mobile device will no longer encounter the legacy mobile login screen. Mobile users will now use the standard login screen. The standard login screen and related screens have been optimized for mobile users. Systems which have set a custom login theme in Tweak Settings will still see the custom login theme.

Basic cPanel & WHM Setup

cPanel default theme

Root users and resellers with root privileges can now set a cPanel default theme for the entire server. This setting is configured in the Basic cPanel & WHM Setup screen.

The cPanel default theme configured in the Basic cPanel & WHM Setup screen will now be used when a reseller:

• creates a new account in the Create a New Account interface,
• creates a new package in the Add a Package interface,
• restores an account in the Restore Backups and Restore Multiple Backups interfaces, or
• transfers an account using any page in the Transfers screen.

The default theme set in the Basic cPanel & WHM Setup screen is used when:

• an account does not have a theme in its account configuration, or
• an account has a theme that is not installed on the server.

If a root user or a reseller with root privileges does not configure a cPanel default theme in the Basic cPanel & WHM Setup screen, then the system will use the system default theme.

The following chart explains the cPanel theme fallback precedence:

Notes for accounts on a legacy mailonly theme

Webmail default theme

Root users and resellers with root privileges can now set a Webmail default theme for the entire server. This setting is configured in the Basic cPanel & WHM Setup screen.

The Webmail default theme configured in the Basic cPanel & WHM Setup screen will be used when:

• a cPanel account does not have a theme in its account configuration, or
• a cPanel account has a theme that is not installed on the server.

Notes for accounts on a legacy mailonly theme

Appendix A: Provided third-party applications

cPanel & WHM version 11.36 includes the following third-party applications. This section lists the applications' version numbers and the minor build of cPanel & WHM that corresponds to each version.

Appendix B: New and modified API calls

Modified XML API Calls

• Create Account (createacct) — The function will use the default theme selected in Basic cPanel & WHM Setup in WHM if no value is provided for the cpmod string.
• Add Package (addpkg) — The function will use the default theme selected in Basic cPanel & WHM Setup in WHM if no value is provided for the cpmod string.
• Edit Package (editpkg) — If no value is provided for the cpmod string:
  • for a package with no set theme, the function will use the default theme selected in Basic cPanel & WHM Setup in WHM
  • for a package with a set theme, no theme changes will occur

Appendix C: SYSUP Failures

Previous to cPanel 7 WHM version 11.36, system administrators had the option to enable or disable SYSUP. In version 11.36, system administrators must have SYSUP enabled in order to upgrade and use version 11.36. With this change, system administrators may receive failure notices regarding Cpanel::Sysup. These notices will be sent via email. System administrators with a failed SYSUP will receive an email similar to the following:

Subject: cPanel update failure during sysup
Updating to the latest version of cPanel & WHM 11.36 did not succeed. Basic requirements for cPanel & WHM were unable to be installed. The specific failure was:

Sysup: Needed system RPMs were not installed: specific RPM

For more information on this error, and guidance on resolving the error, please go to go.cpanel.net/sysupfailed

SYSUP failures can occur for the following reasons:

• A system administrator disabled the wrong package associated with YUM.

• There is a third-party package that conflicts with another package.

• A system administrator’s package conflicts with a cPanel-provided package or a third-party package.

To avoid these issues, a system administrator can review their third-party repositories and packages for any conflicts. In this case, system administrators should verify what they have installed versus what they want to install. Likewise, a system administrator can review possible issues in /etc/yum.conf by running the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/checkyum script.