Posted in Informatique Linux/UNIX

Debian 13 - Developing in PHP 8.0 and 8.4 on the same computer

Debian 13 - Developing in PHP 8.0 and 8.4 on the same computer

I manage and maintain several web applications, but unfortunately some are still in CodeIgniter 3, which therefore stops at PHP version 8.0.30.

To be able to continue maintaining them, (despite the fact that this version of PHP is obsolete, and that the projects are migrated), it is necessary to make a small configuration in Apache, and to add the FPM packages.

In this article, we will use PHP version 8.4 for modern packages.
It will be necessary to adapt, of course to your situation, as well as the folder containing the files and in the vhost directives.
The repository used in this article is a repository maintained by a third party. It is in no way an official repository of the Debian team.

First, add the repos GPG keys to the system, and add the repos URLs, and update the apt catalog.

sudo curl -sSLo /usr/share/keyrings/deb.sury.org-php.gpg https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/deb.sury.org-php.gpg] https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php.list

sudo apt update

Once done, install the desired versions of PHP-FPM

sudo apt install -y php8.0 php8.0-fpm php8.0-cli php8.0-common php8.0-curl php8.0-mbstring php8.0-xml php8.0-zip php8.0-gd

sudo apt install -y php8.4 php8.4-fpm php8.4-cli php8.4-common php8.4-curl php8.4-mbstring php8.4-xml php8.4-zip php8.4-gd

To check if the installation was successful, you can run the following commands. The PHP version should be displayed:

php8.0 -v php8.4 -v

Install Apache2 (if not already done), and activate the various necessary Apache modules and configurations

sudo apt install -y apache2
sudo a2enmod proxy_fcgi setenvif
sudo a2enconf php8.0-fpm
sudo a2enconf php8.4-fpm
sudo systemctl restart apache2

Now create the two folders that will contain the web projects

sudo mkdir /var/www/html/8.0
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/8.4

In the 000-default.conf file, overwrite the contents (if there are no special directives for your environment) and put the contents below:

Remember to make a backup of your file, in case you made any changes manually

    ServerName localhost  # Ou ton domaine par défaut
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    

    # Pour le sous-dossier PHP 8.0
    
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted

        
            SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
        
    

    # Pour le sous-dossier PHP 8.4 (ou 8.x)
    
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted

        
            SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php8.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
        
    

    # Optionnel : Un handler par défaut pour les autres dossiers (ex. PHP système)
    
        SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php8.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"

Save everything, and restart the Apache service

sudo systemctl restart apache2

And there you have it! Now if you go to http://localhost/8.0 and http://localhost/8.4, the projects will support the desired PHP version in those different folders.

For the CLI part (using PHP from the command line in the shell), only one can be set as default (in particular to use composer for example). To change the version, type the following command:

sudo update-alternatives --config php

Then choose the PHP version, and you're done.