How to Install PHP 7.4 on Ubuntu 20.04

PHP is a most popular server scripting language used for creating dynamic and interactive Web pages. PHP is widely-used programming language in the Web. This tutorial explains how to install PHP 7.4 on Ubuntu 20.04

By default, Ubuntu 20.04 ships with PHP version 7.4, which is supported by the most popular CMS and frameworks such as WordPress, Magento, and Laravel.

Step 1 – Prerequisites#

Before start installation, make sure your are logged in as root or user with sudo privileges.

Step 2 – Update system#

Update the package index list, it’s recommend to update software repositories and install packages to sync with latest releases.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Step 3 – Install PHP on Ubuntu#

At this step your system is up to date and ready to install PHP. Run the following command to install PHP 7.4.

Installing PHP with Apache#

For Apache web server to install PHP and Apache PHP module run the following commands:

sudo apt install php php-common libapache2-mod-php

Installing PHP with Nginx#

By default, Nginx doesn’t have a built-in support for processing PHP files. So we need to use PHP FPM service to handle the PHP files.

sudo apt install php php-common php-fpm

After that, you need to edit domain Nginx server block and add following lines to work PHP file using Nginx:

server {

    # . . . other code

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
    }
}

Save the configuration file and restart the nginx service for the new configuration take effect:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 4 – Installing PHP Extensions#

You can install PHP extensions as per requirements. Run below command to install most common PHP extensions required for basic usage.

sudo apt install php-cli php-json php-pdo php-mysql php-zip php-gd  php-mbstring php-curl php-xml php-pear php-bcmath

Step 5 – Testing PHP#

Once the installation complete, you can verify version by typing:

php --version

PHP 7.4.3 (cli) (built: Mar 26 2020 20:24:23) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.4.3, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Conclusion#

This tutorial explained how to install PHP 7.4 on Ubuntu 20.04 and configure your web server to process PHP files.

If you have any questions or suggestion, please leave a comment below.