Prerequisites
You should already have Apache installed and serving web pages before following this guide.
This guide was tested on Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 18.04 and Ubuntu 16.04, though it should also be useful for other Debian-based systems.
If you need to install Apache on Ubuntu, please see:
- Installing Apache on Ubuntu 20.04 / 20.10 with Virtual Hosts
- Installing Apache on Ubuntu 18.04 / 19.10 with Virtual Hosts
- Installing Apache on Ubuntu 16.04 / 17.10 with Virtual Hosts
1. Add Repository
Let’s begin by updating the package lists.
sudo apt update
For Ubuntu 20.04 and 18.04 users, install libapache2-mod-fcgid
.
sudo apt install libapache2-mod-fcgid
Ubuntu 16.04 users, install libapache2-mod-fastcgi
.
sudo apt install libapache2-mod-fastcgi
You may need software-properties-common
in order to add a repository with add-apt-repository
.
sudo apt install software-properties-common
We will add Ondřej’s PHP repository that will allow us to download co-installable versions of PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.x, then update the package lists again.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php && sudo apt update
Press ENTER
when prompted to add the repository.
2. Install PHP
You can now install the version of PHP you require. Ondřej’s repository provides PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.x. In this example we will install PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.4.
sudo apt install php5.6 php5.6-fpm
sudo apt install php7.4 php7.4-fpm
Press y
and ENTER
when prompted to install.
Once installed, you should have two new sockets in /var/run/php/
.
ls /var/run/php/
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4 Feb 17 16:50 php5.6-fpm.pid
srw-rw---- 1 www-data www-data 0 Feb 17 16:50 php5.6-fpm.sock
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5 Feb 17 16:51 php7.4-fpm.pid
srw-rw---- 1 www-data www-data 0 Feb 17 16:51 php7.4-fpm.sock
In Step 3, we will use the <FilesMatch>
directive to tell Apache which PHP socket to use.
MySQL Extension
If you intend on using MySQL, you must install the MySQL extension for both PHP 7.x and PHP 5.6.
sudo apt install php5.6-mysql
sudo apt install php7.4-mysql
Other Extensions/Libraries
Note that if you need any other libraries or extensions, they must be installed separately per PHP version. For example, if you need cURL
, you would need to install it for both versions.
sudo apt install php5.6-curl
sudo apt install php7.4-curl
3. Configure Apache
We need to add some Apache modules using a2enmod
.
Ubuntu 20.04 / 18.04 users.
sudo a2enmod actions alias proxy_fcgi fcgid
Ubuntu 16.04 users.
sudo a2enmod actions alias proxy_fcgi fastcgi
You may need to add these two PHP services to the Apache config with:
sudo a2enconf php5.6-fpm
sudo a2enconf php7.4-fpm
And then start them with:
sudo service php5.6-fpm start
sudo service php7.4-fpm start
Restart Apache.
sudo systemctl restart apache2
You can now use either Virtual Hosts or .htaccess
to instruct Apache which version of PHP to use.
4. Virtual Hosts Method
Open up your Apache .conf
file and add the <FilesMatch>
directive to your Virtual Host.
This instructs Apache which PHP socket to use.
PHP 5.6 Example
<VirtualHost *:80>
<FilesMatch \.php> # Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php5.6-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
</FilesMatch>
</VirtualHost>
Make sure to restart Apache after making changes to the Virtual Hosts.
sudo systemctl restart apache2
PHP 7.4 Example
<VirtualHost *:80>
<FilesMatch \.php> # Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
</FilesMatch>
</VirtualHost>
Make sure to restart Apache after making changes to the Virtual Hosts.
sudo systemctl restart apache2
5. htaccess Method
You can also add the <FilesMatch>
directive to your .htaccess
file. Before you do, make sure that AllowOverride
is enabled, otherwise Apache will ignore .htaccess
.
Open the Apache config file.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Scroll down the the following section and make sure that AllowOverride
is set to All
.
<Directory /var/www/>
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
Save and exit (press CTRL
+ X
, press Y
and then press ENTER
)
Restart Apache.
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Now you can add the <FilesMatch>
directive to .htaccess
PHP 5.6 Example
<FilesMatch \.php>
# Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php5.6-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
</FilesMatch>
PHP 7.4 Example
<FilesMatch \.php>
# Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/"
</FilesMatch>
6. Test PHP
To see which version of PHP Apache is serving, create a new file called info.php
in your web document root.
In this example, we will create a new file in /var/www/html/
sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php
Enter the following PHP code.
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
Save file and exit. (Press CTRL
+ X
, press Y
and then press ENTER
)
We can now load this file in the browser by going to http://example.com/info.php
or http://your_ip/info.php
Below we can see the PHP info page with the PHP version clearly displayed.

Don’t forget to delete info.php
as it contains information that could be useful to hackers.
sudo rm /var/www/html/info.php
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dear sir, can you explain more detail step 4 and 5?
and how to setup phpmyadmin with multi php?
make a file .htaccess in a folder in /var/www/html folder (example 7.4)
put that .htaccess in folder 7.4
open .htaccess
fill this :
# Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
SetHandler “proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/”
and save.
““
for phpmyadmin
download manually.
extract and put in folder 7.4
I had missed a step – instructing PHP which version to use. Since I am running my site with SSL, I edited /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite.com-le-ssl.conf:
…
ServerName mysite.com
ServerAlias http://www.mysite.com mysite.com
ServerAdmin dan@mysite.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/mysite.com/public_html
# Apache 2.4.10+ can proxy to unix socket
SetHandler “proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/”
…
But in reality – with or without this edit, phpinfo.php reports the same thing – that the Server API is FPM/FastCGI. I include the first part of the output below – it looks nothing like yours, which doesn’t appear to make reference to php-fpm. Elsewhere, folks are telling me php-fpm is deciding ownership and permissions for uploaded files, not Apache, which would explain why my changes to envvars don’t seem to have any effect. Any ideas about what accounts for the difference, apart from the fact that I am using SSL?
PHP Version 7.4.20
System Linux myvps.myprovider.com 5.4.0 #1 SMP Thu Apr 22 16:18:59 MSK 2021 x86_64
Build Date Jun 4 2021 21:24:55
Server API FPM/FastCGI
Virtual Directory Support disabled
Configuration File (php.ini) Path /etc/php/7.4/fpm
Loaded Configuration File /etc/php/7.4/fpm/php.ini
Scan this dir for additional .ini files /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d
Additional .ini files parsed /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/10-mysqlnd.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/10-opcache.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/10-pdo.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/15-xml.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-calendar.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-ctype.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-dom.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-exif.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-ffi.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-fileinfo.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-ftp.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-gettext.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-iconv.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-json.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-mbstring.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-mysqli.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-pdo_mysql.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-phar.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-posix.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-readline.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-shmop.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-simplexml.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-sockets.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-sysvmsg.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-sysvsem.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-sysvshm.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-tokenizer.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-xmlreader.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-xmlwriter.ini, /etc/php/7.4/fpm/conf.d/20-xsl.ini
PHP API 20190902
PHP Extension 20190902
Zend Extension 320190902
Zend Extension Build API320190902,NTS
PHP Extension Build API20190902,NTS
Ei man thank you =)
how to setup multiple php versions for nginx?
Unfortunately, I don’t have an article for Nginx yet, but steps 1 and 2 are the same, instead you edit your Nginx conf and add/edit
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/phpX.X-fpm.sock
changingphpX.X
to the version of PHP you want to run for that particular virtual host.Excellent solution, but I agree with the friends below, steps missing:
a2enconf php5.6-fpm
a2enconf php7.2-fpm
service php7.2-fpm start
service php5.6-fpm start
service apache2 reload
Thanks, I’ve updated the guide.
Can others let me know if this works ok?
php myadmin is not working with php 5.6 but working with 7.2 how to fix it?
Thank you for this tutorial.
I want to ask how to specify a version of each to install special extension say for eample oci8?
FastCGI or FPM cant implement php_value in .htaccess files, If I follow this tutorial, how can I solve the need to use phpvalue?
I keep getting a ‘503 Service unavailable’ error.
I followed the instructions here, except for ‘4. Virtual Hosts Method’.
I even followed the instructions in the comments here on this problem.
Still I only get ‘503 Service unavailable’.
Please, anyone, help me…!
all perfect but phpmyadmin not work, can u help me?
did you fixed the issue? cause mine too not working bruh
Thanks Man! You just saved the day <3
If you get “Service unavailable” then you need to start the services:
sudo service php5.6-fpm start
sudo service php5.6-fpm start
best!
thank you!!!
Perfect!
Briljant instruction, thanks.
Thanks, it worked for me.
Great tutorial, thanks for share!
Thanks for your tutorial , it worked perfectly.
Santanu
Thankyou so much, it worked for me.
Thanks for this Knowledge.
Thanks!
Muito obrigado, me salvou. Este foi o unico tutorial que funcionou pra mim. PARABENS
a2enconf php5.6-fpm is missing
Hi,
I am getting a 503 Error.
Service Unavailable
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Please help thanks.
There is an error in virtualhost file at following line:
SetHandler “proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/”
You should remove slash after localhost like below:
SetHandler “proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost”
Otherwise, $_SERVER[‘SCRIPT_FILENAME’] will set with two leading slashes.
Thanks for the tutorial, it was very useful.
I’m not an expert in this area and my 2 local sites are now running with PHP 7.2 and 5.6 respectively.
The only thing I had to do was to start these services after installing PHP:
sudo service php5.6-fpm start
sudo service php7.2-fpm start
to have the following files available:
/var/run/php/php*-fpm.sock
I don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but after reading here and there, I tried that and it worked.
I already had php 7.2 running, so I only added php 5.6.
Another thing I noticed is that in PHP info output, before I had:
Server API : Apache 2.0 Handler
and after following this guide, now PHP info shows:
Server API: FPM/FastCGI
I’d like to understand a bit more about why I see this change just to understand better if you have the time.
I’m running Apache on Ubuntu 18.04.
Anyways thanks again for the guide.
Thanks a lot, it worked perfectly.
how to install phpmyadmin in here. not work
how to install in here.
How do you handle redis and/or memcached in this situation?
I don’t have any experience working with redis/memcached yet, sorry.
Great Tutorial helped me a lot working with a specific web app that needs php 5.6
👍