[php] Switch php versions on commandline ubuntu 16.04

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 #to enable php7

When I disable php7.1 in Apache modules and enable php 5.6, Apache recognizes the change and uses php 5.6 interpreter as expected.

But when I run internal php web server from the commandline:

php -S localhost:8888

php handles requests using php 7. So how do I switch between php 5.6 and php 7.1 in the command line ?

Switch from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7.2 using:

sudo a2dismod php5.6 && sudo a2enmod php7.2 && sudo service apache2 restart

Switch from PHP 7.2 to PHP 5.6 using:

sudo a2dismod php7.2 && sudo a2enmod php5.6 && sudo service apache2 restart

You could use these open source PHP Switch Scripts, which were designed specifically for use in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

https://github.com/rapidwebltd/php-switch-scripts

There is a setup.sh script which installs all required dependencies for PHP 5.6, 7.0, 7.1 & 7.2. Once this is complete, you can just run one of the following switch scripts to change the PHP CLI and Apache 2 module version.

./switch-to-php-5.6.sh
./switch-to-php-7.0.sh
./switch-to-php-7.1.sh
./switch-to-php-7.2.sh

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

please follow the steps :

i.e : your current version is : current_version = 7.3 , and you want to change it to : new_version = 7.2

1) sudo a2dismod php(current_version) 
2) sudo a2enmod php(new_version)
3) sudo update-alternatives --config php (here you need to select php version number) 
4) restart apache through : 
  sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart OR
  sudo service apache2 restart

When installing laravel on Ubuntu 18.04, be default PHP 7.3.0RC3 install selected, but laravel and symfony will not install properly complaining about missin php-xml and php-zip, even though they are installed. You need to switch to php 7.1, using the instructions above or,

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

now, running laravel new blog, will proceed correctly

May be you might have an old PHP version like PHP 5.6 in your system and you installed PHP 7.2 too so thats multiple PHP in your machine. There are some applications which were developed when older PHP 5.6 was latest version, they are still live and you working on those applications, You might be working on Laravel simultaneously but Laravel requires PHP 7+ to get started. Getting the picture ?

In that case you can switch between the PHP versions to suit your requirements.

Switch From PHP 5.6 => PHP 7.2

Apache:-

sudo a2dismod php5.6
sudo a2enmod php7.2
sudo service apache2 restart

Command Line:-

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.2
sudo update-alternatives --set phar /usr/bin/phar7.2
sudo update-alternatives --set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar7.2
sudo update-alternatives --set phpize /usr/bin/phpize7.2
sudo update-alternatives --set php-config /usr/bin/php-config7.2

And vice-versa, Switch From PHP 7.2 => PHP 5.6

Apache:-

sudo a2dismod php7.2
sudo a2enmod php5.6
sudo service apache2 restart

Command Line:-

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php5.6
sudo update-alternatives --set phar /usr/bin/phar5.6
sudo update-alternatives --set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar5.6
sudo update-alternatives --set phpize /usr/bin/phpize5.6
sudo update-alternatives --set php-config /usr/bin/php-config5.6

To list all available versions and choose from them :

sudo update-alternatives --config php

Or do manually

sudo a2dismod php7.1 // disable
sudo a2enmod php5.6  // enable

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

Interactive switching mode

sudo update-alternatives --config php
sudo update-alternatives --config phar
sudo update-alternatives --config phar.phar

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
$ sudo update-alternatives --set phar /usr/bin/phar7.1
$ sudo update-alternatives --set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar7.1

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

From PHP 5.6 => PHP 7.1

$ sudo a2dismod php5.6
$ sudo a2enmod php7.1

for old linux versions

 $ sudo service apache2 restart

for more recent version

$ systemctl restart apache2

Type given command in your terminal..

For disable the selected PHP version...

1. • sudo a2dismod php5
   • sudo service apache2 restart

2. For enable other PHP version....

   • sudo a2enmod php5.6
   • sudo service apache2 restart

It will upgrade Php version, same thing reverse if you want version downgrade, you can see it by PHP_INFO();

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

I think you should try this

From php5.6 to php7.1

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

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.1
sudo update-alternatives --set phar /usr/bin/phar7.1
sudo update-alternatives --set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar7.1

From php7.1 to php5.6

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

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php5.6
sudo update-alternatives --set phar /usr/bin/phar5.6
sudo update-alternatives --set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar5.6

You can create a script to switch from versions: sudo nano switch_php then type this:

#!/bin/sh
#!/bin/bash
echo "Switching to PHP$1..."
case $1 in
    "7")
        sudo a2dismod php5.6
        sudo a2enmod php7.0
        sudo service apache2 restart
        sudo ln -sfn /usr/bin/php7.0 /etc/alternatives/php;;
    "5.6")
        sudo a2dismod php7.0
        sudo a2enmod php5.6
        sudo service apache2 restart
        sudo ln -sfn /usr/bin/php5.6 /etc/alternatives/php;;
esac
echo "Current version: $( php -v | head -n 1 | cut -c-7 )"

exit and save make it executable: sudo chmod +x switch_php

To execute the script just type ./switch_php [VERSION_NUMBER] where the parameter is 7 or 5.6

That's it you can now easily switch form PHP7 to PHP 5.6!

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.

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_x000D_
_x000D_
# Usage_x000D_
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then_x000D_
  echo "Usage: sphp [phpversion]"_x000D_
  echo "Example: sphp 7.2"_x000D_
  exit 1_x000D_
fi_x000D_
_x000D_
currentversion="`php -r \"error_reporting(0); echo str_replace('.', '', substr(phpversion(), 0, 3));\"`"_x000D_
newversion="$1"_x000D_
_x000D_
majorOld=${currentversion:0:1}_x000D_
minorOld=${currentversion:1:1}_x000D_
majorNew=${newversion:0:1}_x000D_
minorNew=${newversion:2:1}_x000D_
_x000D_
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then_x000D_
  if [ "${newversion}" == "${currentversion}" ]; then_x000D_
    echo "PHP version [${newversion}] is already being used"_x000D_
    exit 1_x000D_
  fi_x000D_
_x000D_
  echo "PHP version [$newversion] found"_x000D_
  echo "Switching from [php${currentversion}] to [php${newversion}] ... "_x000D_
_x000D_
  printf "a2dismod php$majorOld.$minorOld ... "_x000D_
  sudo a2dismod "php${majorOld}.${minorOld}"_x000D_
  printf "[OK] and "_x000D_
_x000D_
  printf "a2enmod php${newversion} ... "_x000D_
  sudo a2enmod "php${majorNew}.${minorNew}"_x000D_
  printf "[OK]\n"_x000D_
_x000D_
  printf "update-alternatives ... "_x000D_
  sudo update-alternatives --set php "/usr/bin/php${majorNew}.${minorNew}"_x000D_
  printf "[OK]\n"_x000D_
_x000D_
  sudo service apache2 restart_x000D_
  printf "[OK] apache2 restarted\n"_x000D_
else_x000D_
  echo "PHP version $majorNew.$minorNew was not found."_x000D_
  echo "Try \`sudo apt install php@${newversion}\` first."_x000D_
  exit 1_x000D_
fi_x000D_
_x000D_
echo "DONE!"