Use Different PHP Versions In Ubuntu / Linux

You will have lot of problems when your local development PHP version might be different then that of production PHP version, this might further cause some issues when you run composer commands.

Not only this if you need to upgrade your PHP frameworks like LARAVEL, SYMFONY you have to install newer version of PHP. You might also upgrade because fo security patches. So in this tutorial I will teach you how to install multiple PHP versions and how to switch to different PHP version as per your requirements.

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Step 1 - Update OS Packages & Install Libraries

First login to your server and update the Ubuntu/Linux packages with the following command

sudo apt-get update

You can check if you had earlier installed PHP by using the following command. It will list the PHP version installed

sudo php -v

You might need to install additional packages like PPA, if your operating system has not yet released the PHP version your looking out for then 3rd party PPA Ondrej will help to download the latest one.

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Once you install the above packages again you have to update your ubuntu server packages so that it will download the latest software packages from these repositories

sudo apt-get update

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Step 2 - Install Different PHP Versions

Now install the different versions of PHP so that you can see how easy it is to switch between them

For APACHE web server

sudo apt-get install php5.6
sudo apt-get install php7.1
sudo apt-get install php7.2

Additionally if you need you can install other packages along with them like the following

sudo apt-get install php5.6 php5.6-cli php5.6-curl php5.6-mysql php5.6-mbstring
sudo apt-get install php7.1 php7.1-cli php7.1-curl php7.1-mysql php7.1-mbstring
sudo apt-get install php7.2 php7.2-cli php7.2-curl php7.2-mysql php7.2-mbstring

For NGINX web server

sudo apt-get install php5.6-fpm
sudo apt-get install php7.1-fpm
sudo apt-get install php7.2-fpm

Additionally if you need you can install other packages along with them like the following

sudo apt-get install php5.6-fpm php5.6-cli php5.6-curl php5.6-mysql php5.6-mbstring
sudo apt-get install php7.1-fpm php7.1-cli php7.1-curl php7.1-mysql php7.1-mbstring
sudo apt-get install php7.2-fpm php7.2-cli php7.2-curl php7.2-mysql php7.2-mbstring

You can see list of all the php version releases in official website PHP Releases

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Step 3 - Switching Between PHP Versions

By default any one of the PHP version will be activated after installing all the packages. At any point of time you can check which PHP version is currently active with the following command

sudo php -v

You may get the output like the following

PHP 7.2.24-0ubuntu0.18.04.4 (cli) (built: Apr 8 2020 15:45:57) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
  with Zend OPcache v7.2.24-0ubuntu0.18.04.4, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

SET PHP 7.1 As Default Version

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.1

SET PHP 5.6 As Default Version

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php5.6

Manual Switching From 7.2 to 5.6

First disable the PHP 7.2 version with a2dismod, then enable PHP 5.6 version with a2enmod then restart APACHE server

sudo a2dismod 7.2
sudo a2enmod 5.6
sudo service apache2 restart

To get back PHP 7.2 as default version just follow the above steps by changing the version you want to enable and disable.

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Conclusion

Now you got to know how to switch between the PHP versions.

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