Best way to release production code

Question

Is there a best practice for releasing production code for PHP?

I know with Java you can release the source code as a WAR or JAR but does PHP have something like this?

As our org grows I wanted to find a better way of releasing production code instead of the current process with is not acceptable.

Current Process:

• Check New Code into SVN (Subversion)
• Make backup of current production script and append it with .bak.date_time_stamp
• Move new script into production (FTP, SSH, SFTP)

Need the ability to

• revert changes
• optional container (think JAR)
• archive current production code
• automate? this is a wish list option

Any other suggestions/options/practices that would be good to incorporate? Looking at changing the org process.

Answer 1

The rough equivalent to War or Jar would be Phar. There is a tutorial by Cal Evans at

• http://blog.calevans.com/2009/07/19/lessons-in-phar/

Won't go into other Deployment strategies, because those have been discussed before:

• https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=deployment+strategies+php

Answer 2

Take a look at phar as a PHP alternative to jar/war; and at tools like phing for building/deploying releases (it's a PHP variant of ant)