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gmodarelli/Multiple PHP under Ubuntu 13.04.md

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How to setup Ubuntu 13.04 to work with multiple PHP version at the same time
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Multiple PHP under Ubuntu 13.04.md

Multiple PHP version under Ubuntu 13.04

Update your machine

apt-get update
apt-get ugrade

Install some dependencies

apt-get install build-essential

This packages contain a lot of necessary tools like a c and a c++ compiler, make and other libs.

Install git

apt-get install git

Install the lamp server (Apache MySQL PHP)

apt-get install lamp-server^

The installation will ask you to choose a password for the mysql root user. Once finished, open a tab in your browser to http://localhost

You should see a page with the heading "It Works!"

Install php-farm

cd /opt
git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/phpfarm/code phpfarm

Compile all the PHP version you need, eg

cd /opt/phpfarm/src
./compile 5.5.0

If the compilation fails, just install the libraries that caused the interruption. My first compilation complained about libxml2 and an openssl lib missing. It that's the case for you run

apt-get install libxml2 libxml2-dev libssl-dev
./compile 5.5.0

To verify the installation

cd /opt/phpfarm/src/inst/bin
./php-5.5.0 --version

Install FastCGI

apt-get install libapache2-mod-fastcgi apache2-mpm-worker apache2-suexec a2enmod actions fastcgi suexec

Edit the /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, add these lines before the includes

FastCgiServer /var/www/cgi-bin/php-cgi-5.5.0
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin-php/ /var/www/cgi-bin/

Now create the file /var/www/cgi-bin/php-cgi-5.5.0, with this content

#!/bin/sh
PHPRC="/etc/php5/cgi/5.5.0/"
export PHPRC

PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN=3
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN

PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS=5000
export PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS

exec /opt/phpfarm/inst/bin/php-cgi-5.5.0

Make the file executable

chmod +x /var/www/cgi-bin/php-cgi-5.5.0

Configure a VirtualHost to use the php version we just configured eg: /etc/apache2/sites-available/example.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName example.dev
  DocumentRoot /var/www/example/
  <Directory "/var/www/example">
    AddHandler php-cgi .php
    Action php-cgi /cgi-bin-php/php-cgi-5.5.0
    <FilesMatch "\.php$">
      SetHandler php-cgi
    </FilesMatch>
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Enable the site

a2ensite example.conf

Add the server to /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 example.dev

Restart apache

service apache2 restart

If you don't get any error you will find a working installation of PHP5.5.0 at http://example.dev :)

@0v3rth3d4wn
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0v3rth3d4wn commented May 19, 2014

Thanks for this tutorial. It really works. I just needed to enable the Apache2 actions module

sudo a2enmod actions

P.S. Is there a way to keep 2 PHP versions enabled for separate folders? I can compile 2 versions and configure 2 different virtualhosts but how can I add 2 servers in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf?

@helderco
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helderco commented Jun 18, 2014

@0v3rth3d4wn You can. Take a look at php-fpm.

@aggarwallalit
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aggarwallalit commented Feb 8, 2016

I have created a directory abc in /var/www/ path and created a new file info.php to print phpinfo(). But when I hit URL http://abc.dev/info.php . It gives "The requested URL /cgi-bin/php-cgi-5.5.9/info.php was not found on this server" error. Can anybody help to resolve this issue?

@joejwright
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joejwright commented Mar 31, 2016

@aggarwallalit I ran into the same issue. You have to add the line:

FastCgiServer /var/www/cgi-bin/php-cgi-5.5.9

To your apache2.conf file. You can add a line for each PHP version you want to use.

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