How can I force PHP to use the libiconv version of iconv instead of the CentOS-installed glibc version?

Question

The code I'm working on runs perfectly on Windows XP and on Mac OS X. When testing it on CentOS (and on Fedora and Ubuntu), it's not working properly. Searching the nets led me to the conclusion that it's the glibc version of the iconv that's causing the problem. So now I need the libiconv version of iconv for Zend Lucene to work properly.

I already downloaded libiconv and configured it with --prefix=/usr/local, make, then make install without any errors. It seems that it was successfully installed because executing /usr/local/bin/iconv --version says the version is the libiconv. Although a simple iconv --version still gives the glibc version.

Then I recompiled PHP from source using --with-iconv=/usr/local. But still, the phpinfo() is showing the iconv being used is the glibc version. I've also already tried several other compiles using --with-iconv-dir or using /usr/local/bin/php.

Of course, I restarted the web server after recompiling PHP.

I have the following line in my /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:

LoadModule /usr/lib/httpd/modules/libphp5.so

and libphp5.so is actually in /usr/lib/httpd/modules.

phpinfo() shows PHP 5.3.3. I also yum removed the pre-installed PHP 5.1.* just to make sure. But the iconv is still using the glibc version.

ldd /usr/lib/httpd/modules/libphp5.so gives

linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0x003b1000)
/usr/local/lib/preloadable_libiconv.so (0x00110000)
libcrypt.so.1 => /lib/libcrypt.so.1 (0x001ed000)
librt.so.1 => /lib/librt.so.1 (0x0021f000)
libmysqlclient.so.15 => /usr/lib/mysql/libmysqlclient.so.15 (0x003b2000)
libldap-2.3.so.0 => /usr/lib/libldap-2.3.so.0 (0x0026e000)
liblber-2.3.so.0 => /usr/lib/liblber-2.3.so.0 (0x00370000)
libiconv.so.2 => /usr/local/lib/libiconv.so.2 (0x00516000)
libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 (0x002a8000)
libpng12.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 (0x00228000)
libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x00328000)
libcurl.so.3 => /usr/lib/libcurl.so.3 (0x00f23000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x0033b000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00364000)
libnsl.so.1 => /lib/libnsl.so.1 (0x0037e000)
libxml2.so.2 => /usr/lib/libxml2.so.2 (0x00f5f000)
libssl.so.6 => /lib/libssl.so.6 (0x0862c000)
libcrypto.so.6 => /lib/libcrypto.so.6 (0x04145000)
libgssapi_krb5.so.2 => /usr/lib/libgssapi_krb5.so.2 (0x08e2d000)
libkrb5.so.3 => /usr/lib/libkrb5.so.3 (0x0611a000)
libk5crypto.so.3 => /usr/lib/libk5crypto.so.3 (0x005f4000)
libcom_err.so.2 => /lib/libcom_err.so.2 (0x0024e000)
libidn.so.11 => /usr/lib/libidn.so.11 (0x071f5000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x08aa6000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x00397000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x00251000)
libresolv.so.2 => /lib/libresolv.so.2 (0x0748a000)
libsasl2.so.2 => /usr/lib/libsasl2.so.2 (0x07ddf000)
libkrb5support.so.0 => /usr/lib/libkrb5support.so.0 (0x062b7000)
libkeyutils.so.1 => /lib/libkeyutils.so.1 (0x00369000)
libselinux.so.1 => /lib/libselinux.so.1 (0x0913b000)
libsepol.so.1 => /lib/libsepol.so.1 (0x07eb4000)

This is a cross-post from: NullPointer.ph

Answer 1

I just have changed my php-5.3.3 from glibc's iconv to GNU libiconv through the manual recompiling of the php iconv extension. Follow these steps:

1. download php-5.3.3 source code package
2. extract it and go into php-5.3.3/ext/iconv subdirectory
3. execute phpize command (if you have no such command then install php-devel package)

4. (*) edit configure file (vim configure): add iconv_impl_name="" at 4664 line (exact line number on your system configuration may be different):

   ...
   iconv_impl_name=""
       if test -z "$iconv_impl_name"; then
         { $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: checking if using GNU libiconv" >&5<
   ...
   

5. ./configure --with-iconv=/usr/local|grep iconv:

   checking if using GNU libiconv... yes
   

6. make

7. sudo make install

And now I run php -i|grep "iconv impl" and got:

iconv implementation => libiconv

* This trick forces configure to select the GNU libiconv instead of glibc's iconv. By default it checks for glibc's iconv at first step and does not check for GNU libiconv at all.