[TriLUG] PHP install/upgrade question

[Rick DeNatale]

I'm currently running several apache/php/mysql applications on my RH9
system including Serendipity, WebCalendar, and  Mediawiki.

So far I've been using RH9 packages 

Apache:
  httpd-2.0.40-21.17.legacy
  httpd-manual-2.0.40-21.17.legacy

PHP:
  php-ldap-4.2.2-17.7.legacy
  php-imap-4.2.2-17.7.legacy
  php-4.2.2-17.7.legacy
  php-mysql-4.2.2-17.7.legacy

MySql
  mysql-3.23.58-1.9
  mysql-devel-3.23.58-1.9
  mysql-server-3.23.58-1.9

At least this is what I get by piping rpm -qa to grep httpd, php, and
mysql respectively.

The "problem" I've run into is that the RH9 packaged versions of php
seem to install the apache2filter flavor of sapi, and that in order to
get nice looking URLs working on mediawiki it needs the apache2handler
sapi.

So I've got a few questions:

1) I guess that what I need to do is to build php at least (and maybe
apache) from source.
What's the safest way to do this so that I can go back to what I had
should things not work out?  I'm assuming that I need to uninstall the
rpms before I build (or at least install) the new php and/or apache.  
Is doing an rpm -e --repackage ... enough to be able to go back, or do
I need to do more?

2) I've spent some time over the few days trying to grok the php
install docs and whatever how-tos I've been able to find, and I can't
figure out how to configure php with a particular sapi, there's no
obvious mapping to the php .configure parameters, at least for me.

Any advice is welcome.

I know that I need to totally upgrade this system from RH9 to
something more modern, but I've got so much stuff working on it now
that I'm a little gunshy about how to do that with minimal breakage.