change php version 7.4.32 to 8.1.0 on CentOS7?

@Sinnbeck I've tried all that, it doesn't work

@boyjarv and that means? I mean it can mean so many things

1. The installation failed
2. Your server broke completely
3. It installed fine but cli is still running 7.4
4. It installed fine but nginx is still running 7.4
5. ...

@boyjarv Sorry, but we don't believe you.

Just start with step 2 in the guide @sinnbeck linked.

@boyjarv try

sudo update-alternatives --set php

@Sinnbeck I tried that and got

alternatives version 1.7.6 - Copyright (C) 2001 Red Hat, Inc.
This may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU Public License.

usage: alternatives --install <link> <name> <path> <priority>
                    [--initscript <service>]
                    [--family <family>]
                    [--slave <link> <name> <path>]*
       alternatives --remove <name> <path>
       alternatives --auto <name>
       alternatives --config <name>
       alternatives --display <name>
       alternatives --set <name> <path>
       alternatives --list

common options: --verbose --test --help --usage --version --keep-missing
                --altdir <directory> --admindir <directory>

@boyjarv ok. On Ubuntu it let's you pick from a list. You need to give it the path as well. Time to Google the path to where php is installed on centos

It could be

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php8.1

@boyjarv do perhaps

sudo update-alternatives --set php /opt/plesk/php/8.1/bin/php

But you never mentioned that you were running plesk. That might change things 🤷‍♂️

@boyjarv

The plesk server you have installed on the same centOS box is aliasing php to its local PHP install. The alias will override any other alternative such as using update-alternatives

• Does it need that to be aliased?
• Can you try removing that alias, and see if it works?

@rodrigo.pedra ah ha! I think you are right, I think it is aliased, how can I turn off aliasing?

Thanks

@boyjarv

You need to find where plesk defines this alias and comment it.

It might be a reference on your user's .profile or .bash_profile files that are loaded every time you login to a shell.

The hard part is that sometimes a program just add something like

source /etc/plesk/config

/etc/plesk/config is a made-up file name

Which will run this other file when your profile files are run, so it may be trick to find it.

Try running

grep -rn ~ -e "alias php="

It will search all files that have the string alias php= from your home folder. If you find it, try commenting out that line and see if it affects plesk.

@rodrigo.pedra ok thanks I grepped it and got back:

/root/.bashrc:8:alias php='/opt/plesk/php/7.3/bin/php'
/root/.bashrc:14:alias php='/opt/plesk/php/7.4/bin/php'
/root/.bash_history:503:echo "alias php='/opt/plesk/php/7.4/bin/php'" >> ~/.bashrc
/root/.bash_history:856:alias php="/usr/bin/php81"

@boyjarv

don't mind .bash_history

Try commenting out lines 8 and 14 on your /root/.bashrc file.

Or just add your alias to PHP 8 after it.

@rodrigo.pedra

ok my /root/.bashrc file now looks like this:

# .bashrc

# User specific aliases and functions

alias rm='rm -i'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
#alias php='/opt/plesk/php/8.1/bin/php'
#
# Source global definitions
#if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
#	. /etc/bashrc
#fi
#alias php='/opt/plesk/php/8.1/bin/php'
alias php='/opt/plesk/php/8.1/bin/php'

when I php -v I get:

-bash: /opt/plesk/php/8.1.1/bin/php: No such file or directory

when I go to /opt/plesk/php I can see version 8.1 (not 8.1.1)

@boyjarv

what is the output for each of the following commands?

ls -la /opt/plesk/php/8.1
ls -la /opt/plesk/php/8.1.1
ls -la /opt/plesk/php/8.1.1/bin

@rodrigo.pedra ls -la /opt/plesk/php/8.1

drwxr-xr-x 8 root root  77 Sep 30 15:39 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root  50 Sep 30 15:43 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 127 Oct 13 15:29 bin
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root  88 Sep 30 15:36 etc
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root  17 Sep 30 15:36 lib64
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  21 Oct 13 15:29 sbin
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root  70 Oct 13 15:29 share
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root  28 Oct 13 15:29 var

the other two don't exist

@boyjarv

So double-check your alias definition.

It is very weird the additional .1 just when executing the alias.

I am sorry, but these kind of infra-structure issues are a bit tricky to solve at distance.

I guess you already have the probable causes, symptoms, and remedies to check against your installation.

You might need to double check any environment variable, alias definition, and installation paths.

It is also a good idea to check Plesk's documentation to see if there is a straightforward way to change its PHP version. Maybe we are fighting against something that solvable by changing a configuration file.

Good luck =)

@boyjarv 7.4 will get no more security updates after November. So I recommend figuring it out

@Sinnbeck I've been at it for 2 hours now, can anyone else help please?

Although saying that... I can now run php artisan, great!

when I try and run composer install, I get a load of problems:

requires php >=8.1 -> your php version (7.4.32) does not satisfy that requirement

@boyjarv

composer is essentially a PHP script, you can try running it like this:

First, discover composer's binary full path:

$ which composer
/usr/local/sbin/composer

/usr/local/sbin/composer above is just a sample, your output may be different.

Second run composer like this:

cd /path/to/your/project
/usr/bin/php81 /usr/local/sbin/composer install

@rodrigo.pedra this doesn't work

@rodrigo.pedra composer works but I get :

Root composer.json requires php ^8.0.2 but your php version (7.4.32) does not satisfy that requirement.

@boyjarv Try this:

$ composer install --ignore-platform-reqs

This is far from ideal. But may work in your case.

@rodrigo.pedra tried that, that didn't work

@rodrigo.pedra ok so I was using path sbin, should've been bin

now I get:

# Copyright 1999-2020. Plesk International GmbH. All Rights Reserved.
COMPOSER_BIN="/usr/local/psa/var/modules/composer/composer.phar"

[ -e "$COMPOSER_BIN" ] || { echo "'$COMPOSER_BIN' not found" >&2; exit 1; }
[ -x "$COMPOSER_BIN" ] || { echo "'$COMPOSER_BIN' is not executable" >&2; exit 1; }

"$COMPOSER_BIN" "$@"

@boyjarv so even the composer version you have installed is provided by plesk...

If this is a modified script by them, maybe running with PHP 8 will never work properly.

Maybe it is better to use Laravel 8 on this server so you can use PHP 7.4?

Or have a separate server without Plesk installed?

@boyjarv Simplest would be to run

yum remove plesk-server

Or whatever that package is called.

@Tray2 ooh sounds a bit drastic... anyone else help?

@boyjarv The php command is most likely a dynamic link, and probable placed in /usr/local/bin or /usr/bin.

If you do ls -la in one of those directories you will probably see something like this

php -> /opt/plesk/php/7.4/bin/php

Then do a rm php and then ln -s <path to php 8.1 > php

Then you should be good.