How to Install PHP 8 on CentOS/RHEL 8/7

PHP is a popular open-source server-side scripting language that is integral in developing dynamic web pages. PHP 8.0 is finally out and was released on November 26th, 2020. It promises lots of improvements and optimizations which are set to streamline how developers write and interact with PHP code.

In this guide, you will learn how to install PHP 8.0 on CentOS 8/7 and RHEL 8/7.

Step 1: Enable EPEL and Remi Repository on CentOS/RHEL

Right off the bat, you need to enable the EPEL repository on your system. EPEL, short for Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux, is an effort from the Fedora team that provides a set of additional packages that are not present by default on RHEL & CentOS.

$ sudo dnf install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm  [On CentOS/RHEL 8]
$ sudo yum install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm  [On CentOS/RHEL 7]

Remi repository is a third-party repository that provides a wide range of PHP versions for RedHat Enterprise Linux. To install the Remi repository, run the command:

$ sudo dnf install -y https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm  [On CentOS/RHEL 8]
$ sudo yum install -y https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-7.rpm  [On CentOS/RHEL 7]

Step 2: Install PHP 8 on CentOS/RHEL

Once the installation is complete, proceed and list the available php module streams as shown:

$ sudo dnf module list php   [On RHEL 8]

Right at the bottom, be sure to notice the remi-8.0 php module.

We need to enable this module before installing PHP 8.0. To enable php:remi-8.0, execute:

$ sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.0 -y [On RHEL 8]

On CentOS 7, use the following commands.

$ sudo yum -y install yum-utils
$ sudo yum-config-manager --disable 'remi-php*'
$ sudo yum-config-manager --enable remi-php80

Once enabled, install PHP 8.0 for Apache or Nginx web server as shown:

Install PHP 8.0 for Apache

To install PHP 8 on the installed Apache web server, run:

$ sudo dnf install php php-cli php-common

Install PHP 8.0 for Nginx

If you are using Nginx in your development stack, consider installing php-fpm as shown.

$ sudo dnf install php php-cli php-common php-fpm

Step 3: Verify PHP 8.0 on CentOS/RHEL

There are two ways that you can use to verify the PHP version. On command-line, issue the command.

$ php -v

Additionally, you can create a sample php file in the /var/www/html folder as shown:

$ sudo vim /var/www/html/info.php

Then add the following PHP code which will populate the version of PHP alongside installed modules.

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Save and exit. Be sure to restart the Apache or Nginx web server as shown.

$ sudo systemctl restart httpd
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

Next, head over to your browser and go to the address shown:

http://server-ip/info.php

The webpage displays a wealth of information regarding the version of PHP installed such as build date, build system, Architecture, and a host of PHP extensions.

Step 3: Install PHP 8.0 Extensions in CentOS/RHEL

PHP extensions are libraries that provide added functionality to PHP. To install a php extension, use the syntax:

$ sudo yum install php-{extension-name}

For example, to enable PHP to seamlessly work with MySQL, you can install the MySQL extension as shown.

$ sudo yum install php-mysqlnd

Finally, you can verify the installed extensions using the command:

$ php -m

To verify if a specific extension is installed, execute:

$ php -m | grep extension-name

For example:

$ php -m | grep mysqlnd

In the end, we hope that you can now comfortably install PHP 8.0 alongside various php extensions on CentOS/RHEL 8/7.