How to install PHP (7 or 7.2) on Ubuntu

Install PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu

PHP 7.2 stable version has been released. Use the following set of commands to enable PPA for PHP 7.2 in your Ubuntu system and install it. You can use this version for production use also.

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y php7.2

Now use the following command to check installed php version on your system.

php -v

PHP 7.2.7-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Jun 22 2018 08:44:50) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.2.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.2.7-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

Install PHP 7.1 on Ubuntu

Use the following set of commands to add PPA for PHP 7 in your Ubuntu system and install PHP 7.1 version.

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y php7.1

Now use the following command to check installed php version on your system.

php -v

PHP 7.1.18-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Jun 11 2018 14:22:30) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.1.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.1.18-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

Install PHP 7.0 on Ubuntu

Use the following set of commands to add PPA for PHP 7 in your Ubuntu system and install PHP 7.0 version.

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y php7.0

Now use the following command to check installed php version on your system.

php -v

PHP 7.0.30-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: May  2 2018 12:43:14) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2017 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.0.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2017 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.0.30-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1, Copyright (c) 1999-2017, by Zend Technologies

Install PHP 7 Modules

You may also need to install modules based on your application requirements. Use the following command to search available PHP 7 modules in the package repository.

sudo apt-cache search php7*

php-all-dev - package depending on all supported PHP development packages
php7.0 - server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language (metapackage)
php7.0-cgi - server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language (CGI binary)
php7.0-cli - command-line interpreter for the PHP scripting language
php7.0-common - documentation, examples and common module for PHP
php7.0-curl - CURL module for PHP
php7.0-dev - Files for PHP7.0 module development
php7.0-gd - GD module for PHP
php7.0-gmp - GMP module for PHP
...
...
...
php7.1-xml - DOM, SimpleXML, WDDX, XML, and XSL module for PHP
php7.1-xmlrpc - XMLRPC-EPI module for PHP
php7.1-zip - Zip module for PHP
php7.1-opcache - Zend OpCache module for PHP
php7.1 - server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language (metapackage)
php7.1-xsl - XSL module for PHP (dummy)
...
...
php7.2-bcmath - Bcmath module for PHP
php7.2-bz2 - bzip2 module for PHP
php7.2-cgi - server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language (CGI binary)
php7.2-cli - command-line interpreter for the PHP scripting language
php7.2-common - documentation, examples and common module for PHP
php7.2-curl - CURL module for PHP
php7.2-dba - DBA module for PHP

You can install the required PHP modules on your system as below command. Make sure to install packages for correct PHP version by specifying the version with the package name. Without defining package version, it will install the latest package.

Install PHP 7.0 modules

You may need some additional packages and PHP modules in order for PHP to work with your applications. You can install the most commonly needed modules with:

apt-get install php-pear php7.0-dev php7.0-zip php7.0-curl php7.0-gd php7.0-mysql php7.0-mcrypt php7.0-xml libapache2-mod-php7.0

Install PHP 7.2 modules

You may need some additional packages and PHP modules in order for PHP to work with your applications. You can install the most commonly needed modules with:

apt-get install php-pear php7.2-dev php7.2-zip php7.2-curl php7.2-gd php7.2-mysql php7.2-mcrypt php7.2-xml libapache2-mod-php7.2

How to change the PHP version you’re using

If you have multiple PHP versions installed on your Ubuntu server, you can change what version is the default one.

To set PHP 7.0 as the default, run:

update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.0

To set PHP 7.2 as the default, run:

update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.2

If you’re following our LAMP tutorials and you’re using Apache, you can configure Apache to use PHP 7.2 with the following command:

a2enmod php7.2

And then restart Apache for the changes to take effect:

systemctl restart apache2

Speed up PHP by using an opcode cache

You can improve the performance of your PHP by using a caching method. We’ll use APCu, but there are other alternatives available.

If you have the ‘php-pear’ module installed (we included it in our instructions above), you can install APCu with the following command:

pecl install apcu

There are also other ways you can install APCu, including using a package.

To start using APCu, you should run the following command for PHP 7.2:

echo "extension=apcu.so" | tee -a /etc/php/7.2/mods-available/cache.ini

And the following command for PHP 7.0:

echo "extension=apcu.so" | tee -a /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/cache.ini

If you’re following our LAMP tutorials and you’re using Apache, create a symlink for the file you’ve just created.

For PHP 7.2:

ln -s /etc/php/7.2/mods-available/cache.ini /etc/php/7.2/apache2/conf.d/30-cache.ini

For PHP 7.0:

ln -s /etc/php/7.0/mods-available/cache.ini /etc/php/7.0/apache2/conf.d/30-cache.ini

And finally, reload Apache for the changes to take effect:

systemctl restart apache2