PHP is an open-source programming language widely used for web development. It is an HTML-embedded scripting language for building dynamic web sites.
By default, Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04 ships PHP v7.2 (EOL) and PHP v7.0 (EOL), respectively.
In this post, we will see how to install PHP 7.4 / 7.3 / 7.2 on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04.
Add PHP Repository
Ondřej Surý, a third-party repository, hosted on the launchpad, which offers PHP 7.4 / 7.3 / 7.2 for Ubuntu operating system.
Update the repository cache.
sudo apt update
Install the below packages.
sudo apt install -y curl wget gnupg2 ca-certificates lsb-release apt-transport-https
Add the repository to your system.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ondrej/php
Update the repository index.
sudo apt update
Install PHP
Install PHP 7.4 on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04
Install PHP 7.4 with the below command.
sudo apt install -y php7.4 php7.4-cli php7.4-common
Install PHP 7.3 on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04
Install PHP 7.3 with the below command.
sudo apt install -y php7.3 php7.3-cli php7.3-common
Install PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04
Install PHP 7.2 with the below command.
sudo apt install -y php7.2 php7.2-cli php7.2-common
Verify PHP Version
Once you have installed the PHP package, check its version.
php -v
Output:
PHP 7.4.5 (cli) (built: Apr 19 2020 07:36:30) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v7.4.5, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies
PHP Support for Web Server
Both Apache and Nginx do not support the processing of PHP files by default when the browser requests the PHP page. So, we need to install the PHP package on the server to support PHP files.
PHP Support for Apache
You can install a below package with Apache webserver to support PHP for the LAMP stack. This package provides the PHP modules for Apache 2 web server.
READ: How To Install LAMP Stack on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04
Change PHP version, if required
sudo apt install -y apache2 libapache2-mod-php7.4
PHP Support for Ngnix
Nginx does not have a PHP modules package to support PHP for the LEMP stack. To have PHP support for Nginx, we can use the PHP FastCGI Process Manager to handle PHP requests.
READ: How To Install LEMP Stack on Ubuntu 18.04 / Ubuntu 16.04
Change PHP version, if required
sudo apt install -y php7.4-fpm
PHP-FPM listens on the socket run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock by default.
To make PHP-FPM use TCP connection, edit the below file.
sudo nano /etc/php/7.4/fpm/pool.d/www.conf
Then, change the listen parameter.
FROM:
listen = /run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock
TO:
listen = 127.0.0.1:9000
Add socket details in Nginx virtual host.
server {
# other codes
location ~* \.php$ {
fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_NAME $fastcgi_script_name;
}
}
Install PHP Extensions
PHP extensions enable specific functions/support for your code. For example, installing PHP MySQL extension will let your PHP code to connect with the MySQL database.
To install MySQL support for PHP v7.4, you can install a php7.4-mysql package.
sudo apt install -y php7.4-mysql
Once you have installed a required extension, use the below command to verify it.
php -m | grep -i mysql
Output:
mysqli
mysqlnd
pdo_mysql
PHP Extensions for CMS
PHP Extensions for WordPress
The following extensions are required to install and run WordPress on Ubuntu. WordPress recommends having PHP v7.3 for the installation.
sudo apt install -y php7.3-mysql php7.3-dom php7.3-simplexml php7.3-ssh2 php7.3-xml php7.3-xmlreader php7.3-curl php7.3-exif php7.3-ftp php7.3-gd php7.3-iconv php7.3-imagick php7.3-json php7.3-mbstring php7.3-posix php7.3-sockets php7.3-tokenizer
PHP Extensions for Joomla
The following extensions are required to install and run Joomla on Ubuntu. Joomla requires PHP v7.1 and above.
sudo apt install -y php7.3-mysql php7.3-xml php-pear php7.3-json
PHP Extensions for Drupal
The following extensions are required to install and run Drupal on Ubuntu. Drupal requires PHP v7.1 and above.
sudo apt install -y php7.3-mysql php7.3-dom php7.3-gd php7.3-json php7.3-pdo php7.3-simplexml php7.3-tokenizer php7.3-xml
Conclusion
That’s All. Please share your feedback in the comments section.