Easy PHP Installation on Ubuntu 22.04: A Step-by-Step Guide for Web Developers

PHP is a programming language used to create websites and applications. To run applications written in PHP on an Ubuntu system, you need to install PHP packages. This is commonly done for e-commerce websites, blogs, and API applications.

If you’re using Ubuntu 22.04, you can easily install PHP by following these steps:

Use the Ondrej PPA to install PHP on your Ubuntu 22.04 LTS system.
The PPA includes various PHP versions like 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 8.0, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2, 7.1, 7.0, and PHP 5.6. You can choose the version that suits your application.
It’s recommended for new developers to use the latest PHP version, which is PHP 8.2.

This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing PHP on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. It’s also applicable to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS systems. Follow the steps in this blog post to quickly and easily install PHP on your Ubuntu system.

Step 1: Install PHP on Ubuntu 22.04

PHP installation on Ubuntu systems is pretty straightforward. You just need to add the required PPA and you can install any PHP version on the Ubuntu system.

Follow these steps to complete PHP installation on Ubuntu:

1. Install a few dependencies required by this tutorial with the below-mentioned command:

sudo apt install software-properties-common ca-certificates lsb-release apt-transport-https

2. Add the Ondrej PPA to your system, which contains all versions of PHP packages for Ubuntu systems.

LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

3. Now, update the Apt package manager cache.

sudo apt update

4. The SURY repository contains PHP 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 7.4, 7.3, 7.2 & PHP 5.6. As the latest stable version of PHP is 8.2, but a large number of websites still required PHP 7.x. You can install any of the required PHP versions on your system.

//Install PHP 8.2: 
sudo apt install php8.3

//Install PHP 8.2: 
sudo apt install php8.2

//Install PHP 8.1: 
sudo apt install php8.1


//Install PHP 7.4:
sudo apt install php7.4


//Install PHP 5.6 (EOL):
sudo apt install php5.6

Replace version 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 7.4, or 5.6 with the required PHP version to install on Ubuntu. Even you can install multiple PHP versions on a single Ubuntu system.

5. Most PHP applications depend on various extensions to extend their features. That can also be installed using the following syntax:

sudo apt install php8.2-[extension]

Replace [extension] with the extension you want to install, if you want to add multiple extensions then include them in braces, I am going to install “php-mbstring, php-mysql, php-xml, and php-curl” by running the below-mentioned command:

sudo apt-get install -y php8.2-cli php8.2-common php8.2-fpm php8.2-mysql php8.2-zip php8.2-gd php8.2-mbstring php8.2-curl php8.2-xml php8.2-bcmath

Users who have installed different PHP versions, need to replace 8.2 with the required PHP versions.

Step 2: Check Active PHP Version

Now after installation verify that the correct version of PHP is installed by checking the version number by the below-mentioned command:

php -v

Output: 

PHP 8.2.1 (cli) (built: Jan 13 2023 10:43:08) (NTS) Copyright (c) The PHP Group Zend Engine v4.2.1, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies with Zend OPcache v8.2.1, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Step 3: Understand PHP Configuration Files

The PHP configuration files are stored under /etc/php directory with the version numbers. For example, all the configuration files related to PHP 8.2 are located below:

Main PHP configuration file location:
- PHP CLI: /etc/php/8.2/cli/php.ini
- Apache: /etc/php/8.2/apache2/php.ini
- PHP FPM: /etc/php/8.2/fpm/php.ini
All the installed PHP modules are stored under /etc/php/8.2/mods-available directory.
PHP Active modules configuration directory location:
- PHP CLI: /etc/php/8.2/cli/conf.d/
- Apache: /etc/php/8.2/apache2/conf.d/
- PHP FPM: /etc/php/8.2/fpm/conf.d/

To check files for the other PHP versions, just change the PHP version number (8.2 in the above example) in the files and directory path.

Step 4: Change Default PHP Version

You can use an `update-alternatives` command to set the default PHP version. Use this tutorial to read more details about switching the PHP version for CLI and Apache.

sudo update-alternatives --config php

Output: 

(Select your choice) There are 4 choices for the alternative php (providing /usr/bin/php). Selection Path Priority Status ------------------------------------------------------------ * 0 /usr/bin/php8.1 81 auto mode 1 /usr/bin/php5.6 56 manual mode 2 /usr/bin/php7.4 74 manual mode 3 /usr/bin/php8.0 80 manual mode 4 /usr/bin/php8.1 81 manual mode 5 /usr/bin/php8.2 82 manual mode 6 /usr/bin/php8.3 83 manual mode Press to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 6

The above output shows all the installed PHP versions on your system. Selection number 6 set PHP 8.3 as the default PHP version for the command line.

Step 5: Uninstalling PHP (Optional)

If any PHP version is no more required, it can be removed from the system. That will free the disk space as well as system security.

To uninstall any PHP version just type:

sudo apt remove php5.6

Also, uninstall all the modules for that version with the following command:

sudo apt remove php5.6-*

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