In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and configure PHP 7 on your CentOS 7. For those of you who didn’t know, PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a server-side scripting language designed for web development but also used as a general-purpose programming language. PHP code is interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the resulting web page: PHP commands can be embedded directly into an HTML source document rather than calling an external file to process data. PHP 7 comes with numerous new and improved features. One of the most noticeable is the new Zend Engine version. Also, other important improvements are enhanced performance and significantly reduced memory usage. Thus, PHP 7 can be up to twice as fast as PHP 5.6.
This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple. I will show you the step-by-step installation of PHP 7 on the CentOS 7 server.
Prerequisites
- A server running one of the following operating systems: CentOS 7.
- It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
- SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
- A
non-root sudo useror access to theroot user. We recommend acting as anon-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.
Install PHP 7 on CentOS 7
Step 1. First, you need to enable Webtatic and EPEL yum repositories on your system.
rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm rpm -Uvh https://mirror.webtatic.com/yum/el7/webtatic-release.rpm
Step 2. Installing PHP 7 in CentOS 7.
Now, install PHP 7 using the following command:
sudo yum -y update sudo yum install php70w
Restart Apache after PHP installation:
sudo systemctl restart httpd
Step 3. Install PHP modules.
If you like to search all the available PHP 7 modules you can use to command:
sudo yum search php70w
You may want to install some other PHP extensions required by your applications. Here is the list:
php70w.x86_64 : PHP scripting language for creating dynamic web sites php70w-bcmath.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications for using the bcmath library php70w-cli.x86_64 : Command-line interface for PHP php70w-common.x86_64 : Common files for PHP php70w-dba.x86_64 : A database abstraction layer module for PHP applications php70w-devel.x86_64 : Files needed for building PHP extensions php70w-embedded.x86_64 : PHP library for embedding in applications php70w-enchant.x86_64 : Enchant spelling extension for PHP applications php70w-fpm.x86_64 : PHP FastCGI Process Manager php70w-gd.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications for using the gd graphics library php70w-imap.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use IMAP php70w-interbase.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use Interbase/Firebird databases php70w-intl.x86_64 : Internationalization extension for PHP applications php70w-ldap.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use LDAP php70w-mbstring.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications which need multi-byte string handling php70w-mcrypt.x86_64 : Standard PHP module provides mcrypt library support php70w-mysql.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use MySQL databases php70w-mysqlnd.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use MySQL databases php70w-odbc.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use ODBC databases php70w-opcache.x86_64 : An opcode cache Zend extension php70w-pdo.x86_64 : A database access abstraction module for PHP applications php70w-pdo_dblib.x86_64 : MSSQL database module for PHP php70w-pear.noarch : PHP Extension and Application Repository framework php70w-pgsql.x86_64 : A PostgreSQL database module for PHP php70w-phpdbg.x86_64 : Interactive PHP debugger php70w-process.x86_64 : Modules for PHP script using system process interfaces php70w-pspell.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications for using pspell interfaces php70w-recode.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications for using the recode library php70w-snmp.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that query SNMP-managed devices php70w-soap.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications that use the SOAP protocol php70w-tidy.x86_64 : Standard PHP module provides tidy library support php70w-xml.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications which use XML php70w-xmlrpc.x86_64 : A module for PHP applications which use the XML-RPC protocol
Step 4. Verify the Install PHP version.
Once it is completed, you can ensure that the latest stable release of PHP 7 is installed on your system by using the command:
# php -v PHP 7.0.0 (cli) (built: Dec 16 2015 20:42:32) ( NTS ) Copyright (c) 1997-2015 The PHP Group Zend Engine v3.0.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2015 Zend Technologies
To test PHP, create a test file named info.php with the content below. Save the file, then browse to it to see if PHP is working:
nano /var/www/html/info.php
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Congratulations! You have successfully installed PHP 7. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing PHP 7 on your CentOS 7 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official PHP website.
