... I have a PHP script that only works with versions below PHP 5.6. ...
# mkdir -p ~/install/my-ports
# cd ~/install/my-ports
# svn checkout http://svn.freebsd.org/ports/tags/RELEASE_11_0_0/lang/php55 php55
# svn checkout http://svn.freebsd.org/ports/tags/RELEASE_11_0_0/lang/php55-extensions php55-extensions
# cd ~/install/my-ports/php55
# make rmconfig
# make install clean
# cd ~/install/my-ports/php55-extensions
# make rmconfig
# make install clean
Unfortunately it is not easily possible. PHP 7.0 doesn't support the old mysql API, which is widely used.
We will have to refactor big amount of code and this will take much time (mainly testing). The only possible way is to start refactoring and move incrementally. We will start doing this in 4.0 and sometimes will end up with removing old mysql code completely.
... They didn't say anything about PHP 5.6 so I'm assuming it's the same reason. ...
/!\ WARNING /!\
The variable PHP_DEFAULT is set and it should only be defined through DEFAULT_VERSIONS+=php=5.5 in /etc/make.conf
This behaviour has never been supported and will be removed on 2017-01-31
Unknown extension ctype for PHP 55.
*** Error code 1
Stop.
make[1]: stopped in /root/install/my-ports/php55-extensions
*** Error code 1
Stop.
make: stopped in /root/install/my-ports/php55-extensions