There are many tools like Docker, Vagrant, VirtualBox, etc. that gives you the power to achieve the multiple versions of PHP in your system. But I want to stay away as much as possible from third-party tools and try to leverage the native as much as I can.

So want to learn how to install multiple versions of PHP on the Ubuntu system? Okay, that’s great.

Let’s assume, you have
* OS: Ubuntu 16.04
* PHP: 7.1 (PHP-FPM)
* Nginx: 1.10

And want to install PHP 7.2

Install PHP 7.2

Run the following commands to update the PHP repository & the Ubuntu system

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update

Now you are able to install the new version of PHP

sudo apt install -y php7.2-fpm
sudo apt install -y php7.2-dev
php -v

If php -v still pointing to the old PHP version, then run the following command

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php7.2

Install PHP 7.2 Modules

You may need some additional PHP modules in order for PHP to work with your applications.
You can install the most commonly needed modules especially required for Magento 2 with:

sudo apt install php7.2-mysql php7.2-bcmath php7.2-curl php7.2-xml php7.2-gd php7.2-intl php7.2-mcrypt php7.2-mbstring php7.2-soap php7.2-zip

To check installed PHP modules:

php -m | grep -E ‘bcmath|ctype|curl|dom|gd|hash|iconv|intl|json|mbstring|mcrypt|openssl|pdo|soap|spl|xml|xsl|zip’

To search the PHP module:

sudo apt-cache search php7.2

Now, you have a new PHP 7.2 version and the required modules installed. Similarly, you can install PHP 7.3, 7.4, 8.0 & so on and its related modules.

Now a big question is: How to use a specific PHP version as per application?

Before that, we should know how PHP is used.
PHP can be used as a CLI or web server module (mod_php, CGI, FPM).

Switching PHP CLI Version

PHP’s php command is linked to /usr/bin/php, which is symlinked to /etc/alternatives/php, which again is symlinked to actual PHP, for example /usr/bin/php7.2.
So here lies the logic of switching PHP CLI versions.

By default, the PHP installation changes the CLI version to the new one.
In case if you want to switch to a specific version, say PHP 7.2, you can use the update-alternatives command

sudo update-alternatives — set php /usr/bin/php7.2
php -v

You can find the list of PHP executables with

ll /usr/bin | grep php

You might need to run update-alternatives to set the required PHP version if you are running composer commands or any CLI PHP script.

Switching PHP Web Server Version

As you probably know, Nginx runs PHP code via PHP-FPM, which listens on a Unix socket.
And that makes it easier to switch the PHP version in the Nginx’s server block.

If you want to point any application, say Magento 2 running on Nginx with PHP 7.2, you can simply change the value of the fastcgi_pass directive as:
You can find the list of PHP executables with

fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock

To find the list of Unix sockets for PHP-FPM

ll /run/php | grep sock

In order to verify the PHP version for Web SAPI, you can use phpinfo() in your .php file.

Conclusion

Some people might want to use Docker, Vagrant based solution for this. It’s Okay.

For me, I always prefer a native system without depending on third-party solutions. This minimizes the overhead and latency problem and hence makes the application development easier and faster.

Above you read, how easily you can change the PHP CLI and Web SAPI version. For CLI-based, you might have to run the update-alternatives command on demand. But for Web applications, once the required PHP version is set, they will work independently on specific PHP versions.

Please comment below if you have any better solution for handling multiple PHP versions.

I was always looking for a quick playground for testing/debugging any PHP application esp. for Magento 2.

Luckily, I got to know about Tinkerwell App in some Twitter feed and thought of giving it a try.

Michiel Gerritsen on Twitter: ".@tinkerwellapp + Magento 2 is a great combo. It allows me to SSH into the server and execute code on the real order object for example. In this case, i was debugging why a credit memo couldn't get created for this order. pic.twitter.com/msS5Enx4Oc / Twitter"

@tinkerwellapp + Magento 2 is a great combo. It allows me to SSH into the server and execute code on the real order object for example. In this case, i was debugging why a credit memo couldn't get created for this order. pic.twitter.com/msS5Enx4Oc

If you don’t know about the Tinerwell app

Tinkerwell is the magical code editor that runs your code within local and remote PHP applications. In other words, it’s a RELP(read-eval-print loop) for PHP.

Though there are some tools like

But the main advantage of the Tinkerwell app over others is that it can tinker locally and also remotely(via SSH). Also, it has official IDE plugins so that you can run code directly from your favorite code editor(VSCode, Sublime Text 3, and PhpStorm).

Installation

Tinkerwell is a commercial app that only costs around 15 USD and really worth it.

After purchasing, you will get an email with a link to download the app along with the license key.

After downloading you can simply install the installer file and configure the License Key, so nothing fancy about it.

Configuring for Magento 2

Currently(as the time of writing), the major PHP applications supported by Tinkerwell app are:

The full list can be found at — https://github.com/tinkerwellapp/drivers

Tinkerwell “drivers” determine how the application should be bootstrapped — and can even provide variables that should be available automatically.

Since Magento 2 is supported by default, you just need to set the working directory in local or remote.

Tinkering with Magento 2 Locally

Open the app and click on the folder icon (1) and set your local Magento 2 working directory(2). That’s it.

Now, you can run/debug any Magento 2 code (core & custom) with the real-time preview on the right pane. For example, it may look like

Troubleshooting

Problem: If you are getting an error

Zend_Db_Adapter_Exception with message ‘SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory’

Solution: Just replace ‘localhost’ by the IP address(127.0.0.1) for the DB host in the file app/etc/env.php

Tinkering with Magento 2 Remotely (via SSH)

For remote interactive debugging, you can connect via Action (1) > Connect Via SSH. You will see a similar popup as below:

Just fill up the SSH login details and connect(2). Now you are able to able to run the code remotely.

Conclusion

Though there are some alternatives, Tinkerwell works quite well locally and remotely for testing out any PHP code (not only limited to Laravel, Magento 2 or other PHP frameworks).
It’s really quite helpful in quick testing/debugging any PHP code and saves a lot of time.

You might be interested in following the Twitter discussion

🛒 Magento 2 Extensions 🚀 on Twitter: "Question: How do you debug smartly in M2 production server?Please share your views!@magento @MageOverflow @MagentoMP @max_pronko @markshust @mrloo @VinaiKopp @LBajsarowicz @PeterJaap / Twitter"

Question: How do you debug smartly in M2 production server?Please share your views!@magento @MageOverflow @MagentoMP @max_pronko @markshust @mrloo @VinaiKopp @LBajsarowicz @PeterJaap

Happy tinkering with PHP!

Originally published at https://blog.magepsycho.com on April 20, 2020.