How can I change php-cli version on Ubuntu 14.04?

Question

I am new to using Linux and I broke some php settings while tampering.

If I execute a php script containing: phpinfo(); it shows the php versions as 5.

Answer 1

Plesk

Just to say, if your server is managed using Plesk (like mine is at the time of searching through this question) then you may not have later PHP versions in /usr/bin

In this case, your PHP versions will be located in /opt/plesk/php so you can instead use the following command as a super user (run su first if you're not a super user) to set your PHP CLI version (to 7.3 in this example):

echo "alias php='/opt/plesk/php/7.3/bin/php'" >> ~/.bashrc

Log out and log back in and.... voila!

Notes

1. You must be have super user privileges to run this
2. If you want to set the CLI to a different version then simply replace the 7.3 in the command to whichever version you would like (in the OP's case this would be 5.6
3. If you want to check which versions Plesk has available for you to use, simply run: ls /opt/plesk/php

Source: Plesk Support