Install PHP 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 on CentOS 7

There's a few steps involved in upgrading your PHP installation on CentOS 7, including making sure old versions are uninstalled, getting the right repositories, and installing whichever version and type of PHP is required for your applications.

Uninstall Current PHP version

To view your current PHP related packages, you can run the following command:

yum list installed php*

From here, you can uninstall any necessary packages by running the command below, replacing <package></package> with the name of your package.

yum remove <package>

Configure Repositories

The core repositories of CentOS 7 do not have the most recent versions of PHP. To get them, you'll need to install the EPEL and Remi repositories:

yum install epel-release
yum install http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm

Install the Required PHP version

There are multiple versions and packages for PHP. Currently, the latest PHP version is 7.3, but 7.4 will be released soon and earlier versions of PHP may still be supported.

In addition, there are two main packages for php: php and php-fpm. The one you choose to install is entirely up to you and your software applications. Users of nginx typically use php-fpm, while users of Apache might use php or php-fpm.

For example, to install and run PHP-FPM 7.3, use the commands:

yum install php73-php-fpm
systemctl start php73-php-fpm

You may also need to install other required packages and configure your web server to use the new PHP version.

Installing Multiple PHP versions

If you need to install Multiple PHP versions on a single Linode, some different/additional configuration is required. There's another community post that discusses this and recommends PHPBrew:

Running Multiple PHP Versions on One Linode