dedicated PHP version per virtual host

Question

I have an Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Server with PHP7.2 and PHP5.6 installed. Two Virtual Hosts so far are configured alike:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    # domain: php56.test
    # public: /var/www/php56/   

    ServerName php56.test
    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost

    DocumentRoot /var/www/php56

    <Directory /var/www/php56/>
        Require all granted
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride None
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    LogLevel warn
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Now I want to dedicate PHP5.6 to php56.test and PHP7.2 to php72.test.

I played around the .conf files according several articles on the web, but could not succeed. Either I could get run PHP5.6 or PHP7.2, but not both at a time as required for the dedicated sites. Default .conf as is and site related alike above php56.test.conf.

Solution 1

actually I found a working solition w/o need for .htaccess. Check for How to Install Multiple PHP Version with Apache on Ubuntu 18.04 & 16.04 - https://tecadmin.net/install-multiple-php-version-apache-ubuntu/

Thanks to Rahul Kumar.

Solution 2

You can't do this with mod_php, it can only load one version at a time.

You can run multiple FPM instances on different versions, or use PHP via FCGI (howtos for each are kicking around on the net), but you'll lose the mod_php integrations (like php_flag and php_value in configs) that you may require.

You can mix and match, too - so have one version in mod_php and others in FCGI or FPM; I've previously had the 'known good' version in mod_php while testing under FCGI, then upgraded the mod_php version when I'm ready.

Alternatively, you could run two Apache installs with a different mod_php in each, but that might get more messy (and they can't share a socket).

The modern way of doing this is to use a VM or a container for your testing.

Comments

[kukulo]

I would check these answers here: stackoverflow.com/questions/42696856/…

[Thomas-AC]

Hi Nisse, well I tried this and also other approaches w/o succes. I guess, I might not know nevcessary relationship among the virtual host at sites-available, conf-available and .htaccess, or I am holding wrong content in one of these files. Permissions supposely should be ok.

[Thomas-AC]

Hi BigRedS, I am using Oracle VM. The point is, I need to have it switchable per site e.g. by .htaccess. the issue with mod_php I was not aware of. I tried with FPM only approaches, but also w/o succes. I guess, I might not know nevcessary relationship among the virtual host at sites-available, conf-available and .htaccess, or I am holding wrong content in one of these files. Permissions supposely should be ok.