In today’s guide, we are going to learn how to install PHP 8.1 on CentOS 8/RHEL 8
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language suitable for web development. Most websites out there are programmed using PHP language because it is:
- Fast – PHP is fast because it runs on its own memory space. Also PHP has Zend engine that parses PHP code and turns it into opcodes which are then interpreted.
- Flexible – PHP is flexible because it allows to almost all databases. MySQL being the de-facto database to connect to because it is open source.
- Free and open source
- PHP is forgiving – Why do we say PHP is forgiving? It is forgiving meaning its learning it is not so hard therefore suitable to almost all programmers starting out.
- PHP supports major communication protocols i.e LDAP, IMAP, POP3.
Prerequisites for Installing PHP 8.1
- Before you can use PHP you must have web server installed. Apache web server is the most widely used with PHP.
- Database must be there for PHP to run. It works well on all databases such Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL.
- PHP parser must be there. What is PHP parser if you can ask? PHP Parser is a library that takes a source code written in PHP, passes it through a lexical analyzer and creates its respective syntax tree.
PHP 8.1 is a major update release version. It contains many new features and optimizations e.g
- It introduced Enumerations feature. Enumerations or Enum feature allow a developer to define a custom type that is limited to one of the discrete number of possible values. This is helpful while defining domain model.
- Improvement of RFC readonly property version 2. This prevents modification of the property after initialization.
- Introduction of RFC fibers call action. This seeks to eliminate synchronous and asychronous function call by allowing functions to become interruptible without affecting the entire fuction.
- Introduction of a non return type. This indicates that a function either exits, throws an exception or doesn’t terminate.
- Introduction of first class collable actions.
- Introduction of fsync and fdatasync functions
- Introduction of array_is_list functions
- Introduction of explicit octal numeral notation
Related Articles
- How to Install PHP 8 on Ubuntu 21.04
- How to Install Apache, MYSQL, PHP on Ubuntu 20.04
- How to install PHP 8.1 on Ubuntu 21.04
Table of contents
- Run system update
- Enable EPEL repository
- Enable Remi repository
- Install PHP 8.1
1. Run system updates
The first thing you need to do is to run system updates to make all repositories up to date. To do so run the following command on your terminal.
$ sudo dnf update -yWhen updates are complete, proceed to check the list of available modules lists belonging to PHP. Use the following command to do so;
$ sudo dnf module list phpThe output will look like the one below;
Output
DigitalOcean Droplet Agent 46 kB/s | 3.3 kB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream
Name Stream Profiles Summary
php 7.2 [d] common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
php 7.3 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
php 7.4 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
Hint: [d]efault, [e]nabled, [x]disabled, [i]nstalledFrom the above output, you can see that we don’t have PHP 8.1, so what we need to do is to enable the Remi package repository. This is the maintainer of this RPM package. But first, enable EPEL repository for CentOS 8/RHEL 8.
2. Enable EPEl for CentOS 8/RHEL 8
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux [EPEL] is a Fedora Special Interest Group that creates, maintains, and manages a high-quality set of additional packages for Enterprise Linux, including, but not limited to, Red Hat Enterprise Linux [RHEL], CentOS, and Scientific Linux [SL], Oracle Linux [OL].
To enable EPEL on CentOS 8/RHEL 8, run the following command on your terminal.
$ sudo dnf -y install //dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpmOutput will look like this;
Last metadata expiration check: 0:01:13 ago on Sat 04 Dec 2021 06:22:28 AM UTC.
epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm 51 kB/s | 23 kB 00:00
Dependencies resolved.
=================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
=================================================================================================================
Installing:
epel-release noarch 8-13.el8 @commandline 23 k
Transaction Summary
=================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package
Total size: 23 k
Installed size: 35 k
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Installing : epel-release-8-13.el8.noarch 1/1
Running scriptlet: epel-release-8-13.el8.noarch 1/1
Verifying : epel-release-8-13.el8.noarch 1/1
Installed:
epel-release-8-13.el8.noarch
Complete!When this is complete, then we can now add remi report repository.
3. Enable Remi report repository
Let’s enable remi repository with the following command;
$ sudo dnf -y install //rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpmYou will get output as shown below;
output
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux Modular 8 - x86_64 502 kB/s | 980 kB 00:01
Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 6.8 MB/s | 11 MB 00:01
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:01 ago on Sat 04 Dec 2021 06:25:07 AM UTC.
remi-release-8.rpm 217 kB/s | 26 kB 00:00
Dependencies resolved.
=================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
=================================================================================================================
Installing:
remi-release noarch 8.5-2.el8.remi @commandline 26 k
Upgrading:
centos-linux-release noarch 8.5-1.2111.el8 baseos 22 k
Transaction Summary
=================================================================================================================
Install 1 Package
Upgrade 1 Package
Total size: 48 k
Total download size: 22 k
Downloading Packages:
centos-linux-release-8.5-1.2111.el8.noarch.rpm 410 kB/s | 22 kB 00:00
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 85 kB/s | 22 kB 00:00
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
Preparing : 1/1
Running scriptlet: centos-linux-release-8.5-1.2111.el8.noarch 1/1
Upgrading : centos-linux-release-8.5-1.2111.el8.noarch 1/3
Installing : remi-release-8.5-2.el8.remi.noarch 2/3
Cleanup : centos-linux-release-8.3-1.2011.el8.noarch 3/3
Running scriptlet: centos-linux-release-8.3-1.2011.el8.noarch 3/3
Verifying : remi-release-8.5-2.el8.remi.noarch 1/3
Verifying : centos-linux-release-8.5-1.2111.el8.noarch 2/3
Verifying : centos-linux-release-8.3-1.2011.el8.noarch 3/3
Upgraded:
centos-linux-release-8.5-1.2111.el8.noarch
Installed:
remi-release-8.5-2.el8.remi.noarch
Complete! Now you can list PHP modules to see if PHP 8.1 has been added.
$ sudo dnf module list phpThis time you will get the following output.
Output
Remi's Modular repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 4.1 kB/s | 858 B 00:00
Remi's Modular repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 3.0 MB/s | 3.1 kB 00:00
Importing GPG key 0x5F11735A:
Userid : "Remi's RPM repository "
Fingerprint: 6B38 FEA7 231F 87F5 2B9C A9D8 5550 9759 5F11 735A
From : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-remi.el8
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Remi's Modular repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 2.8 MB/s | 945 kB 00:00
Safe Remi's RPM repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 4.6 kB/s | 858 B 00:00
Safe Remi's RPM repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 3.0 MB/s | 3.1 kB 00:00
Importing GPG key 0x5F11735A:
Userid : "Remi's RPM repository "
Fingerprint: 6B38 FEA7 231F 87F5 2B9C A9D8 5550 9759 5F11 735A
From : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-remi.el8
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Safe Remi's RPM repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 6.4 MB/s | 2.0 MB 00:00
CentOS Linux 8 - AppStream
Name Stream Profiles Summary
php 7.2 [d] common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
php 7.3 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
php 7.4 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
Remi's Modular repository for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64
Name Stream Profiles Summary
php remi-7.2 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
php remi-7.3 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
php remi-7.4 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
php remi-8.0 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
php remi-8.1 common [d], devel, minimal PHP scripting language
Hint: [d]efault, [e]nabled, [x]disabled, [i]nstalledWe have successfully added PHP 8.1 into our repository, let’s enable it before running the installation.
Enable remi PHP 8.1 with the following command;
$ sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.1 -yYou will get the following output.
Output
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:21 ago on Fri 03 Dec 2021 03:13:27 PM UTC.
Dependencies resolved.
=================================================================================================================
Package Architecture Version Repository Size
=================================================================================================================
Enabling module streams:
php remi-8.1
Transaction Summary
=================================================================================================================
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Complete!Now that we have enabled remi repository, we need to install web server to server the PHP. I am going to use Nginx webserver. Check this on how to install Nginx.
$ sudo dnf install php php-cli php-common php-fpmSample output
Installed:
apr-1.6.3-12.el8.x86_64
apr-util-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
apr-util-bdb-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
apr-util-openssl-1.6.1-6.el8.x86_64
centos-logos-httpd-85.8-2.el8.noarch
httpd-2.4.37-43.module_el8.5.0+1022+b541f3b1.x86_64
httpd-filesystem-2.4.37-43.module_el8.5.0+1022+b541f3b1.noarch
httpd-tools-2.4.37-43.module_el8.5.0+1022+b541f3b1.x86_64
libsodium-1.0.18-2.el8.x86_64
libxslt-1.1.32-6.el8.x86_64
mailcap-2.1.48-3.el8.noarch
mod_http2-1.15.7-3.module_el8.4.0+778+c970deab.x86_64
nginx-filesystem-1:1.14.1-9.module_el8.0.0+184+e34fea82.noarch
oniguruma5php-6.9.7.1-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-cli-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-common-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-fpm-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-mbstring-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-opcache-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-pdo-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-sodium-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
php-xml-8.1.0-1.el8.remi.x86_64
Complete!Check PHP version you have installed.
$ php -v
PHP 8.1.0 [cli] [built: Nov 23 2021 18:56:11] [NTS gcc x86_64]
Copyright [c] The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.1.0, Copyright [c] Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v8.1.0, Copyright [c], by Zend TechnologiesConclusion
We have successfully installed PHP 8.1 on CentOS 8/RHEL 8. I hope you are comfortable with how to add remi now.