PHP IMAP Extension on Amazon Linux 2023

kwallace

I'm installing osTicket v1.18.1 on an Amazon Linux 2023 instance. The installer setup page says that the PHP IMAP Extension required for mail fetching. However, as far as I can tell, the PHP IMAP Extension isn't available on Amazon Linux 2023. I tried to build the extension from the PHP source but the necessary development tools don't seem to be available in Amazon Linux 2023. Does anyone have a way to get the PHP IMAP Extension working on Amazon Linux 2023? Must I use POP3 if I want to run on Amazon Linux 2023? Thanks.

KevinTheJedi

kwallace

We need to remove that requirement from 1.17.x and 1.18.x as ever since we moved to the laminas-mail package it's not needed. So, what I'm basically trying to say is you don't need it since you'll be running v1.18.1.

Cheers.

kwallace

Thank you for the reply. Does this mean that going forward I or most people should use POP3 instead of IMAP? I was always under the impression that IMAP was "better" or "more secure" than POP3 for reasons I didn't quite understand. I've always used IMAP with osTicket. Are there any drawbacks with using POP3 with osTicket instead of IMAP? I guess I ask that since IMAP was previously required/recommended. Thanks.

KevinTheJedi

kwallace

I guess I didn’t explain it properly. IMAP is still fully supported so you can continue using it with no issues. You are correct that it's the more modern and the secure protocol. What I was trying to say was the new mail package we switched to in 1.17.x called laminas-mail does not require the php-imap extension so you don’t need to install it. I was also saying that we simply need to remove the extension as a core requirement since laminas-mail doesn’t need it to properly function.

Cheers.

SteffanCline

As of v1.18.2 it is still showing required or at least strongly recommended. Is this just something that needs to be removed in the next version or what?

KevinTheJedi

SteffanCline

The wording was changed from “Required for email fetching” to “Useful for email processing”. It’s not needed anymore; it’s only helpful in some situations.

Cheers.