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

You can create a script to switch from versions: sudo nano switch_php then type this:

#!/bin/sh
#!/bin/bash
echo "Switching to PHP$1..."
case $1 in
    "7")
        sudo a2dismod php5.6
        sudo a2enmod php7.0
        sudo service apache2 restart
        sudo ln -sfn /usr/bin/php7.0 /etc/alternatives/php;;
    "5.6")
        sudo a2dismod php7.0
        sudo a2enmod php5.6
        sudo service apache2 restart
        sudo ln -sfn /usr/bin/php5.6 /etc/alternatives/php;;
esac
echo "Current version: $( php -v | head -n 1 | cut -c-7 )"

exit and save make it executable: sudo chmod +x switch_php

To execute the script just type ./switch_php [VERSION_NUMBER] where the parameter is 7 or 5.6

That's it you can now easily switch form PHP7 to PHP 5.6!