VestaCP with different PHP versions

In this post, we will show you how to have several PHP versions and manage them from VestaCP. To do this, we will need PHPBrew. PHPBrew lets you compile different PHP versions, which you can even save in your HOME folder. This tutorial is for VestaCP with Ubuntu 16.

Install dependencies

First, install all the dependencies needed for PHPBrew to work correctly:

# apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libxml2-dev pkg-config libssl-dev libsslcommon2-dev libbz2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libmysqlclient-dev libgdbm-dev libjpeg62 libjpeg62-dev libpng12-0 libpng12-dev libxml2 libxml2-dev libmcrypt4 libmcrypt-dev libmhash2 libmhash-dev libmm-dev libmm14 libtidy-dev libtidy-0.99-0 libxslt1-dev libxslt1.1 libfreetype6 libfreetype6-dev libicu-dev libreadline-dev lcov libzip-dev

Create the following links:

# cd /usr/local/include
# ln -s /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/curl curl
# cd /usr/include
# ln -s x86_64-linux-gnu/curl
# apt-get install libcurl4-gnutls-dev libzip-dev

Install and configure PHPBrew

To install PHPBrew on both versions of Ubuntu, proceed as follows:

# curl -L -O https://github.com/phpbrew/phpbrew/raw/master/phpbrew
# chmod +x phpbrew
# mv phpbrew /usr/bin/phpbrew
# mkdir -p /usr/local/php

Then edit ~/.bashrc and add the following at the very end:

# nano ~/.bashrc

phpbrew init --root=/usr/local/php
export PHPBREW_ROOT=/usr/local/php
[[ -e ~/.phpbrew/bashrc ]] && source ~/.phpbrew/bashrc

You can see which PHP versions you can install with these commands:

# phpbrew update
# phpbrew update --old

Compile different PHP versions

You do not have to compile all PHP versions; you can compile the ones you will use.

-For PHP 5.3 run:

# phpbrew install 5.3 +default +iconv +exif +ftp +mysql +gd +intl +zlib +cgi +dba +wddx

-For PHP 5.4 run:

# phpbrew install 5.4 +default +iconv +exif +ftp +mysql +gd +intl +zlib +cgi +dba +wddx

-For PHP 5.5 run:

# phpbrew install 5.5 +default +iconv +exif +ftp +mysql +gd +intl +zlib +cgi +dba +wddx

-For PHP 5.6 run:

# phpbrew install 5.6 +default +iconv +exif +ftp +mysql +gd +intl +zlib +cgi +dba +wddx

-For PHP 7.0 run:

# phpbrew install 7.0 +default +iconv +exif +ftp +mysql +gd +intl +zlib +cgi +dba +wddx

-For PHP 7.1 run:

# phpbrew install 7.1 +default +iconv +exif +ftp +mysql +gd +intl +zlib +cgi +dba +wddx

-For PHP 7.2 run:

# phpbrew install 7.2 +default +iconv +exif +ftp +mysql +gd +intl +zlib +cgi +dba +wddx

-For PHP 7.3 run:

# phpbrew install 7.3 +default +iconv +exif +ftp +mysql +gd +intl +zlib +cgi +dba +wddx

Install additional extensions

For PHP versions higher than 7.x, the OpenSSL extension, for example, is not installed by default. That is why we will have to install it manually (as well as any other extension we need). To install an extension with PHPBrew, follow these steps:

Display the versions you have:

# phpbrew list

Select the PHP version for which you want to install the extension:

# phpbrew use php-5.6.xx

Now install the required extension. In this case, as an example, we will install OpenSSL:

# phpbrew ext install openssl

Create symbolic links

We will create links for the PHP versions we have compiled so that we can run the different PHP versions from the VestaCP templates:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-X.X.XX /usr/local/php/phpXX

WARNING: If the PHP version is updated, the last two numbers of the version in the link may change, which is why these links must be created manually. Even so, here are the links that needed to be created when this post was written.

-For PHP 5.3 run:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-5.3.29 /usr/local/php/php53

-For PHP 5.4 run:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-5.4.45 /usr/local/php/php54

-For PHP 5.5 run:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-5.5.38 /usr/local/php/php55

-For PHP 5.6 run:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-5.6.31 /usr/local/php/php56

-For PHP 7.0 run:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-7.0.14 /usr/local/php/php70

-For PHP 7.1 run:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-7.1.6 /usr/local/php/php71

-For PHP 7.2 run:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-7.2.10 /usr/local/php/php72

-For PHP 7.3 run:

# ln -s /usr/local/php/php/php-7.3.33 /usr/local/php/php73

Finally, enable the required Apache modules:

# a2enmod actions cgi
# service apache2 restart

Creating templates for VestaCP

As in the previous step, we will only run the commands for the PHP versions we have compiled. If you have installed all versions, you can run the following code, which runs a bash script that creates all the templates automatically. Otherwise, run the lines for the versions you have installed:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/instalar_plantillas.sh

Grant it permissions and run it:

# chmod u+x instalar_plantillas.sh
# ./instalar_plantillas.sh

If you have installed a specific PHP version, run the commands for that version:

-For PHP 5.3 run:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php53.sh -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php53.sh
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.tpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php53.tpl
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.stpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php53.stpl

-For PHP 5.4 run:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php54.sh -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php54.sh
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.tpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php54.tpl
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.stpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php54.stpl

-For PHP 5.5 run:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php55.sh -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php55.sh
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.tpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php55.tpl
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.stpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php55.stpl

-For PHP 5.6 run:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php56.sh -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php56.sh
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.tpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php56.tpl
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.stpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php56.stpl

-For PHP 7.0 run:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php70.sh -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php70.sh
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.tpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php70.tpl
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.stpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php70.stpl

-For PHP 7.1 run:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php71.sh -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php71.sh
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.tpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php71.tpl
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.stpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php71.stpl

-For PHP 7.2 run:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php72.sh -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php72.sh
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.tpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php72.tpl
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.stpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php72.stpl

-For PHP 7.3 run:

# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php73.sh -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php73.sh
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.tpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php73.tpl
# wget https://gitlab.com/clouding.io-tech.support/vestacp-multiphp/raw/master/php.stpl -O /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/php73.stpl

Now we need to update the permissions for the templates:

# chmod 755 /usr/local/vesta/data/templates/web/apache2/*

When we go to our VestaCP panel, we will now be able to choose which PHP version we want:

Based on https://git.scit.ch/rs/VestaCP-MultiPHP