Switch PHP versions in Arch and Manjaro

As a developer you may sometime need to test an app on different PHP version. Today I am going to show you how to switch PHP versions in Arch and Manjaro OS.

I have PHP 7 and 8(8.1) installed on Manjaro. I even have php56 package from AUR repository only for testing an old project for a client.

Install PHP 7 and 8 with Apache if not installed yet.

sudo pacman -Sy php7 php7-apache php php-apache apache

You can check any other packages you want to install from the article below.

After the installation is done, open the Apache config file.

sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Below the Loadmodule section, add the following lines for PHP 7.

LoadModule php7_module modules/libphp7.so
AddHandler php7-script php
Include conf/extra/php7_module.conf

The following will default to the current latest version of PHP.

LoadModule php_module modules/libphp.so
AddHandler php-script php
Include conf/extra/php_module.conf

For php56, if you have installed it from AUR repository. Otherwise I will advise to not install it.

LoadModule php5_module modules/libphp56.so
AddHandler php5-script php
Include conf/extra/php56_module.conf

If you have all these snippets added to the config file, make sure to comment out the rest which are not in use, for example the default one(8.1).

#LoadModule php_module modules/libphp.so
#AddHandler php-script php
#Include conf/extra/php_module.conf

Save the file, and restart Apache.

sudo systemctl restart httpd

To quickly check the loaded PHP version, use any of the following methods.

1- Type in terminal php -v

2- In your PHP script phpversion();

3- Create an info.php file at the web root with the following code and call it in the browser.

<?php
phpinfo();