How can I easily switch between PHP versions on Mac OSX? - php

Question

I would like to test my application on PHP 5.3 up to PHP 7.0.
Where and how can I install the versions and how can I switch them by running a small script?

Answer 1

If you have both versions of PHP installed, you can switch between versions using the link and unlink brew commands.
For example, to switch between PHP 7.4 and PHP 7.3
brew unlink php#7.4
brew link php#7.3
PS: both versions of PHP have be installed for these commands to work.

Answer 2

I found this very good tutorial on how to install and switch php versions on OSX.
I can switch the version like
$ sphp 7.0 => PHP 7.0
$ sphp 7.3 => PHP 7.3
$ sphp 7.4 => PHP 7.4
Exactly what I want!

Answer 3

Example: Let us switch from php 7.4 to 7.3
brew unlink php#7.4
brew install php#7.3
brew link php#7.3
If you get Warning: php#7.3 is keg-only and must be linked with --force
Then try with:
brew link php#7.3 --force

Answer 4

Using brew
Show current version
$ php -v
Change to different version
(eg. changing from 5.5.x to version 7.0.latest) :
$ brew unlink php55
$ brew install php70

Answer 5

I liked the switcher idea because I'm working of different version at the moment so what you need is
brew install brew-php-switcher
then brew-php-switcher version
for example brew-php-switcher 7.4

Answer 6

i think unlink & link php versions are not enough because we are often using php with apache(httpd), so need to update httpd.conf after switch php version.
i have write shell script for disable/enable php_module automatically inside httpd.conf, look at line 46 to line 54 https://github.com/dangquangthai/switch-php-version-on-mac-sierra/blob/master/switch-php#L46
Follow my steps:
1) Check installed php versions by brew, for sure everything good
> brew list | grep php
#output
php56
php56-intl
php56-mcrypt
php71
php71-intl
php71-mcrypt
2) Run script
> switch-php 71 # or switch-php 56
#output
PHP version [71] found
Switching from [php56] to [php71] ...
Unlink php56 ... [OK] and Link php71 ... [OK]
Updating Apache2.4 Configuration /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf ... [OK]
Restarting Apache2.4 ... [OK]
PHP 7.1.11 (cli) (built: Nov 3 2017 08:48:02) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2017 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.1.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2017 Zend Technologies
3) Finally, when your got above message, check httpd.conf, in my laptop:
vi /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
You can see near by LoadModule lines
LoadModule php7_module /usr/local/Cellar/php71/7.1.11_22/libexec/apache2/libphp7.so
#LoadModule php5_module /usr/local/Cellar/php56/5.6.32_8/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
4) open httpd://localhost/info.php
i hope it helpful

Answer 7

If you install PHP with homebrew, you can switch between versions very easily. Say you want php56 to point to Version 5.6.17, you just do:
brew switch php56 5.6.17

Answer 8

If you have installed php with latest version on your local system and using homebrew then to switch to older version, run following commands.
Here, we are switching to 7.4
brew unlink php
brew install php#7.4
brew link php#7.4

Answer 9

How to:
Find installed PHP versions
Switch from default PHP package to a versioned package
% brew search php
brew-php-switcher php-cs-fixer php#7.3 phplint phpstan pup
php ✔ php-cs-fixer#2 php#7.4 ✔ phpmd phpunit
php-code-sniffer php#7.2 phpbrew phpmyadmin pcp
% brew unlink php
% brew link php#7.4

Answer 10

brew link --overwrite php#7.3
Works perfectly for me :-)

Answer 11

delete all row with "php" in:
nano ~/.zshrc
after that it will work:
brew unlink php#7.4 && brew link php#8.0

Answer 12

if you are using homebrew, then it allows multiple versions of a formula to be installed.
hence,
brew unlink is used to detach a version of formula from usage.
brew link is used to attach a version of formula to usage.
for example, if you have php 7.4 and 8.0 both installed and want to switch between them assuming you are currently using 7.4, then it can be done as :
brew unlink php#7.4
brew link php#8.0

Answer 13

I prefer to use phpbrew where you can easily install ($ phpbrew install 8.1.3 +default) and switch (phpbrew switch 8.1.3) the used php version.
https://github.com/phpbrew/phpbrew

Answer 14

Old question but it's still a difficulty to have a quick way to switch between php versions in 2022. I use Laravel valet and switching PHP versions requires a re install of valet to work. I basically have two custom functions defined in my .zhsrc file, but I think this will work for bash too:
switchphp7() {
valet stop
brew unlink php#8.1
brew services stop php#8.1
brew link --force --overwrite php#7.4
brew services start php#7.4
composer global update
rm -f ~/.config/valet/valet.sock
valet install
valet start
}
switchphp8() {
valet stop
brew unlink php#7.4
brew services stop php#7.4
brew link --force --overwrite php#8.1
brew services start php#8.1
composer global update
rm -f ~/.config/valet/valet.sock
valet install
valet start
}
And then just run them in the command line:
switchphp8
This works reliably for me, however, if you use Valets virtual SSL certificates, the command line will ask for admin account password for every ssl certificate you have linked which is potentially annoying if you have loads of them. It's not a bug if it keeps asking, eventually you will allow all if you keep typing password/use touch id.

Answer 15

Since the OP has specifically asked for switching from "PHP 5.3 up to PHP 7.0", a lot has been deprecated and/or removed in brew due to official support ending for them - as of Dec 2022.
So if we are to switch versions and install any of these unsupported versions brew install php#7.3, it will fail (Question and its answer here). You'll need to use the tap shivammathur/php (praise the devs responsible for this) which can be used to install unsupported versions of PHP.
brew tap shivammathur/php //need to do only once
brew install shivammathur/php/php#7.0 //or brew install php#7.4 depending on your choice
brew search php //optional, shows all the versions available if you want some other version
brew link php#7.0
Switching henceforth is simple:
brew unlink php#7.0
brew link php#5.6 //OP asked 5.3 but 5.6 is the lowest version supported by the tap
All versions <= php#7.4 have been deprecated and removed from brew because they reached their end of life. As of Dec 2022, the only officially supported versions are 8.0 and 8.1 which brew supports.
This too eventually will get outdated as more versions reach EOL but the steps should remain the same as long as that tap remains in development.
The link provided by Xaver's answer served as a good further reading.

Answer 16

Don't forget to change you environment PATH with this command :
echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/php#8.1/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

Answer 17

My purpose was install old patch of php#7.4.24 to MacOS and I done that this way:
I found revision of brew, which contains old php patch, which i need, and reset git to them
repository: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/commit/3b342c146da0452d71d982324977567960da2979
git -C $(brew --repo)/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core reset --hard 3b09794
brew reinstall php#7.4

Answer 18

First install or reinstall the version you want
brew reinstall php#7.4
Secondly you need to switch to the version you want
echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/php#7.4/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/php#7.4/sbin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
Then you need to add in your PATH by running below command
brew-php-switcher 7.4

Answer 19

If you don't need to play with apache then there is a very easy way with one function, just add it to your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshrc (depends on your terminal)
function php-toggle() {
currentVersion=$(php -v | tail -r | tail -n 1 | cut -d " " -f 2 | cut -c 1-3)
switchTo='7.4'
[[ $currentVersion == '7.4' ]] && switchTo='8.1'
brew unlink php#"$currentVersion"
brew services stop php#"$currentVersion"
brew link php#"$switchTo"
brew services start php#"$switchTo"
exportString="export PATH=\"/opt/homebrew/opt/php#${switchTo}/bin:\$PATH\""
echo $exportString > ~/.php_version
source ~/.php_version
}
source ~/.php_version
Open new terminal and run php-toggle.