The solutions above did not work for me on Big Sur I kept on getting:
WARNING: PHP is not recommended
PHP is included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software.
Future versions of macOS will not include PHP.
PHP 7.3.24-[to be removed in future macOS] [cli] [built: Dec 21 2020 21:33:25] [ NTS ]
Copyright [c] 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.3.24, Copyright [c] 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
To fix this I used the following steps:
Step 1 | Tap into another repository of formulae
brew tap shivammathur/php
Step 2 | Install the desired PHP version
brew install shivammathur/php/
Other options are:
or known as just PHP
Step 3 | Link the PHP Version
brew link --overwrite --force
Step 4 | Restart Terminal
Step 5 | Check PHP version
php -v
You should now see the new version.
PHP 7.4.25 [cli] [built: Oct 21 2021 00:29:22] [ NTS ]
Copyright [c] The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright [c] Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v7.4.25, Copyright [c], by Zend Technologies
This also solved my issues with PHP syntax in Visual Studio Code.
Photo by Caspar Rubin on UnsplashThis was written in 2018. Now, all the brew taps in this blog have been deprecated.
Using Homebrew
First, make sure that your homebrew is up to date
brew update && brew upgrade
If you didn’t have homebrew, install it right away!
Using Brew Tap command allows Homebrew to tap into another repository of formula.
brew tap homebrew/dupes
These formulae were those that duplicated software provided by macOS.
brew tap homebrew/versions
These formulae provided multiple versions of existing packages or newer versions of packages that were too incompatible to go in homebrew/core.
brew tap homebrew/homebrew-php
A centralized repository for PHP-related brews.
Checking php version using the following commands
php -v
[same asphp --version
]
To unlink the last version
brew unlink php
[depends on the current version on your computer]
For instance, your current php version is 5.5brew unlink php55
To install the new version of php
brew install php
[If you need another version just change the version number]
If you need php 7.1brew install php71
then check php version again
php -v
If everything looks fine then congratulation! you’ve finished the php updated.
But If you find the following errorsError:Could not symlink file: /urs/local/Cellar/php...
you need to run the following commands
sudo chown -R$[whoami] /usr/local/*
brew list | while read f; do brew unlink f; brew link $f; done
brew unlink php
brew link --overwrite php
check php version again
php -v
linked to the old version?
So open you .profile or .bash_profile
like nano or vim
export PATH=/usr/local/php5/bin:$PATH
Source your file with source ~/.bash_profile
or source ~/.profile
[same as close and reopen your terminal].
Using one line install
curl -s //php-osx.liip.ch/install.sh | bash -s
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# Upgrading with Homebrew
Start by making sure brew is up-to-date:
brew update
Next,
upgrade PHP. You can either use the built-in php recipe, but I recommend to use the shivammathur/homebrew-php
tap.
# Normal upgrade
brew upgrade php
# Upgrade with shivammathur/homebrew-php
brew tap shivammathur/php
brew install shivammathur/php/
To switch between versions, use the following command:
brew link --overwrite --force
You can read more in the repository.
# Next steps
Check the current version by running php -v
:
php -v
Restart Nginx or Apache, if you're using Laravel Valet you can skip to the next section; you need some extra steps in order for the web server to properly work.
sudo nginx -s reload
sudo apachectl restart
And make sure that your local web server also uses PHP 8.1 by visiting this script:
# index.php, accessible to your web server
phpinfo[];
The version should show 8.1.x
.
Noticed a tpyo? You can submit a PR to fix it. If you want to stay up to date about what's happening on this blog, you can follow me on Twitter or subscribe to my newsletter:
# Valet
If you're using Laravel Valet, you should do the following steps to upgrade it:
composer global update
You can use valet use
to switch between PHP versions:
valet use
valet use
# Extensions
PHP extensions are installed using pecl. I personally use Redis and Xdebug. They can be installed like so:
pecl install redis
pecl install xdebug
You can run pecl list
to see which extensions are installed:
pecl list
# Installed packages, channel pecl.php.net:
# =========================================
# Package Version State
# redis 5.3.4 stable
# xdebug 3.1.1 stable
You can search for other extensions using pecl search
:
pecl search pdf
# Retrieving data...0%
# ..
# Matched packages, channel pecl.php.net:
# =======================================
# Package Stable/[Latest] Local
# pdflib 4.1.4 [stable] Creating PDF on the fly with the PDFlib library
Make sure to restart your web server after installing new packages:
sudo nginx -s reload
sudo apachectl restart
valet restart
Make sure all extensions are correctly installed and loaded by checking both your PHP webserver and CLI installs:
php -i | grep redis
var_dump[extension_loaded['redis']];
If extensions aren't properly loaded, there are two easy fixes.
First, make sure the extensions
are added in the correct ini file. You can run php --ini
to know which file is loaded:
Configuration File [php.ini] Path: /opt/homebrew/etc/php/8.1
Loaded Configuration File: /opt/homebrew/etc/php/8.1/php.ini
Scan for additional .ini files in: /opt/homebrew/etc/php/8.1/conf.d
Additional .ini files parsed: /opt/homebrew/etc/php/8.1/conf.d/error_log.ini,
/opt/homebrew/etc/php/8.1/conf.d/ext-opcache.ini,
/opt/homebrew/etc/php/8.1/conf.d/php-memory-limits.ini
Now check the ini file:
extension="redis.so"
zend_extension="xdebug.so"
Note that if you're testing installed extensions via the CLI, you don't need to restart nginx, apache or Valet when making changes to ini settings.
The second thing you can do, if you're updating from an older PHP version which also used pecl to install extension; is to reinstall every extension individually.
pecl uninstall redis
pecl install redis
# Last step
Finally you should test and upgrade your projects for PHP 8 compatibility.
Footnotes
The Road to PHP 8.1
New in PHP 8.1 — A comprehensive list of all things new in PHP 8.1
PHP 8.1 benchmarks
Enums in PHP 8.1
Readonly properties in PHP 8.1
New in initializers in PHP 8.1
Fibers with a grain of salt