Switch php versions on commandline ubuntu 16.04

Question

I have installed php 5.6 and and php 7.1 on my Ubuntu 16.04

I know with Apache as my web server, I can do

a2enmod php5.6 #to enable php5
a2enmod php7.1         


        

Answer 1

You can use below command lines to switch between two PHP version.

E.g.

I want to switch PHP Version from 7.1 to 7.2 we can use below command

sudo a2dismod php7.1 &&  sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.2 && sudo a2enmod php7.2 && sudo service apache2 restart

a2dismod is use to disable the current php version and a2enmod is use to enable the version

Answer 2

I made a bash script to switch between different PHP versions on Ubuntu.

Hope it helps someone.

Here's the script: (save it in /usr/local/bin/sphp.sh, don't forget to add +x flag with command: sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/sphp.sh)

#!/bin/bash

# Usage
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
  echo "Usage: sphp [phpversion]"
  echo "Example: sphp 7.2"
  exit 1
fi

currentversion="`php -r \"error_reporting(0); echo str_replace('.', '', substr(phpversion(), 0, 3));\"`"
newversion="$1"

majorOld=${currentversion:0:1}
minorOld=${currentversion:1:1}
majorNew=${newversion:0:1}
minorNew=${newversion:2:1}

if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
  if [ "${newversion}" == "${currentversion}" ]; then
    echo "PHP version [${newversion}] is already being used"
    exit 1
  fi

  echo "PHP version [$newversion] found"
  echo "Switching from [php${currentversion}] to [php${newversion}] ... "

  printf "a2dismod php$majorOld.$minorOld ... "
  sudo a2dismod "php${majorOld}.${minorOld}"
  printf "[OK] and "

  printf "a2enmod php${newversion} ... "
  sudo a2enmod "php${majorNew}.${minorNew}"
  printf "[OK]\n"

  printf "update-alternatives ... "
  sudo update-alternatives --set php "/usr/bin/php${majorNew}.${minorNew}"
  printf "[OK]\n"

  sudo service apache2 restart
  printf "[OK] apache2 restarted\n"
else
  echo "PHP version $majorNew.$minorNew was not found."
  echo "Try \`sudo apt install php@${newversion}\` first."
  exit 1
fi

echo "DONE!"

Answer 3

type this in your command line, should work for all ubuntu between 16.04, 18.04 and 20.04.

$ sudo update-alternatives --config php

and this is what you will get

There are 4 choices for the alternative php (providing /usr/bin/php).

  Selection    Path             Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/php7.2   72        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/php5.6   56        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/php7.0   70        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/php7.1   71        manual mode
  4            /usr/bin/php7.2   72        manual mode
Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

Choose the appropriate version

Answer 4

Interactive switching mode

sudo update-alternatives --config php

Manual Switching

From PHP 5.6 => PHP 7.1

Default PHP 5.6 is set on your system and you need to switch to PHP 7.1.

Apache:

$ sudo a2dismod php5.6
$ sudo a2enmod php7.1
$ sudo service apache2 restart

Command Line:

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

From PHP 7.1 => PHP 5.6

Default PHP 7.1 is set on your system and you need to switch to PHP 5.6.

Apache:

$ sudo a2dismod php7.1
$ sudo a2enmod php5.6
$ sudo service apache2 restart

Command Line:

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

Source

Answer 5

I actually wouldn't recommend using a2enmod for php 5 or 7. I would use update-alternatives. You can do sudo update-alternatives --config php to set which system wide version of PHP you want to use. This makes your command line and apache versions work the same. You can read more about update-alternatives on the man page.

Answer 6

You can use the below script to switch between PHP version easily I have included phpize configuration too.

https://github.com/anilkumararumulla/switch-php-version

Download the script file and run

sh switch.sh