After updating to php 7.2, ZoneMinder completely stopped working. Fortunately there were lots of entries in the error_log file

[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.880809 2018] [php7:error] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Fatal error:  Cannot use 'Object' as class name as it is reserved in /usr/share/zoneminder/www        /api/lib/Cake/Core/Object.php on line 30
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.889737 2018] [php7:warn] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/var/lib/zoneminder/templogs/cake_error.log) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Log/Engine/FileLog.php on         line 142
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.889850 2018] [php7:warn] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/var/log/zonemindererror.log) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Log/Engine/FileLog.php on line 142
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.890176 2018] [php7:warn] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/var/lib/zoneminder/templogs/cake_error.log) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Log/Engine/FileLog.php on         line 142
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.890221 2018] [php7:warn] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/var/log/zonemindererror.log) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Log/Engine/FileLog.php on line 142
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.890594 2018] [php7:warn] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/var/lib/zoneminder/templogs/cake_error.log) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Log/Engine/FileLog.php on         line 142
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.890637 2018] [php7:warn] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/var/log/zonemindererror.log) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Log/Engine/FileLog.php on line 142
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.890960 2018] [php7:warn] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/var/lib/zoneminder/templogs/cake_error.log) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Log/Engine/FileLog.php on         line 142
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.891021 2018] [php7:warn] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Warning:  file_put_contents(/var/log/zonemindererror.log) [function.file-put-contents]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Log/Engine/FileLog.php on line 142
[Fri Aug 10 15:44:19.892818 2018] [php7:error] [pid 5293] [client 127.0.0.1:46958] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Class 'Controller' not found in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/li        b/Cake/Error/ExceptionRenderer.php:174\nStack trace:\n#0 /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Error/ExceptionRenderer.php(92): ExceptionRenderer->_getController(Object(InternalErr        orException))\n#1 /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Error/ErrorHandler.php(126): ExceptionRenderer->__construct(Object(InternalErrorException))\n#2 /usr/share/zoneminder/www/ap        i/lib/Cake/Error/ErrorHandler.php(284): ErrorHandler::handleException(Object(InternalErrorException))\n#3 /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Error/ErrorHandler.php(213): ErrorHa        ndler::handleFatalError(64, 'Cannot use 'Obj...', '/usr/share/zone...', 30)\n#4 /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Core/App.php(970): ErrorHandler::handleError(64, 'Cannot use '        Obj...', '/usr/share/zone...', 30, Array)\n#5 /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Core/App.php(943): App::_checkFatalError()\n#6 [internal function]: App::shutdown()\n#7 {main}\n          thrown in /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/lib/Cake/Error/ExceptionRenderer.php on line 174

Looks like CakePHP used class names that are now reserved words. Unfortunately, you cannot just drop the updated CakePHP files into ZoneMinder (I tried). Until the repository package is updated, you’ve got to build ZoneMinder from source. Or grab the testing RPM from the zoneminder.com repo. 1.31.45-1.13 works. Don’t forget to run “perl /usr/bin/zmupdate.pl” to update the database.

Then I had to throw the database connection into from the config file into /usr/share/zoneminder/www/api/app/Config/database.php (default array) because I do not use the default connection info.

Once I had the updated ZoneMinder along with the newer CakePHP that the ZM folks have in their repo … we’ve got ZoneMinder again.