ok, cos dreamhost don't support this, i thought i'd just post this in case someone else runs into a similar issue. basically, i wanted to use a customised php 5 (fast cgi)for my site (which included zip and a couple other extensions), so i used the script from the dreamhost wiki, and made the changes i needed, and installed. that all worked fine, after a few goes, but when trying to use the exec() command to call external php scripts, i was getting a crash when calling the php cgi binary.
the solution is to use the cli binary, which is pretty obvious after the fact, but didn't seem so (for someone who is used to using /usr/bin/php only). anyways, cgi for web, and cli for command line, and you won't (shouldn't) have any problems.
pic taken from php.net.
#33 dtra (david tran)
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