How To Install PHP (7.3, 7.2 & 5.6) on Debian 9 Stretch

The PHP 7.3 is the latest version available for installation on Debian 9 Stretch Linux machine. Ubuntu users can visit our tutorial for installing PHP 7 on Ubuntu. This tutorial is for the Debian 9 Stretch users to install PHP 7.3, 7.2, 7.1 or 5.6 on their system.

First of all, you need to complete the prerequisites step and then go forward to install the PHP version of your choice or requirements.

Prerequisites

Login to your Debian 9 system using shell access. For remote systems connect with SSH. Windows users can use Putty or other alternatives applications for SSH connection.

ssh [email protected]

Run below commands to upgrade the current packages to the latest version.

sudo apt update 
sudo apt upgrade

Let’s execute the following commands to install the required packages first on your system. Then import packages signing key. After that configure PPA for the PHP packages on your system.

sudo apt install ca-certificates apt-transport-https 
wget -q https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ stretch main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php.list

Now use one of the below options to install PHP of your requirements.

Installing PHP 5.6

Execute the following commands for installing PHP 5.6 on your Debian 9 Stretch system.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php5.6

Also install required php modules.

sudo apt install php5.6-cli php5.6-common php5.6-curl php5.6-mbstring php5.6-mysql php5.6-xml

Installing PHP 7.3

You can also install the Latest PHP version on your system. Run the following commands to install PHP 7.3 on Debian 9.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php7.3

Also install required php modules.

sudo apt install php7.3-cli php7.3-common php7.3-curl php7.3-mbstring php7.3-mysql php7.3-xml

Installing PHP 7.2

You can also install the Latest PHP version on your system. Run the following commands to install PHP 7.2 on Debian 9.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php7.2

Also install required php modules.

sudo apt install php7.2-cli php7.2-common php7.2-curl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-mysql php7.2-xml

Installing PHP 7.1

If your application has the specific requirement of PHP 7.1, You can use the following commands for installing PHP 7.1 on Debian 9 Stretch system.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install php7.1

Also, install the required PHP modules as per your requirements. Here is a list of some frequently used modules.

sudo apt install php7.1-cli php7.1-common php7.1-curl php7.1-mbstring php7.1-mysql php7.1-xml