Switch php versions on commandline ubuntu 16.04

Question

I have installed php 5.6 and and php 7.1 on my Ubuntu 16.04

I know with Apache as my web server, I can do

a2enmod php5.6 #to enable php5
a2enmod php7.1         


        

Answer 1

type this in your command line, should work for all ubuntu between 16.04, 18.04 and 20.04.

$ sudo update-alternatives --config php

and this is what you will get

There are 4 choices for the alternative php (providing /usr/bin/php).

  Selection    Path             Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/php7.2   72        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/php5.6   56        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/php7.0   70        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/php7.1   71        manual mode
  4            /usr/bin/php7.2   72        manual mode
Press  to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

Choose the appropriate version