Question
How do I know which PHP version I'm using and how to update it?
- Posted January 22, 2015
Hello, I’m very very new to web development and computing world and I’ve got a very basic question. I need to create a web app which supports login with Facebook. In order to do that, I need to use php. Although, Facebook api need php5.4+ How do I know which version of php is supported from my server? Besides, If it’s not 5.4+ how do I update it?
Thanks a lot for your support.
Greets,
Giacomo
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Here’s a quick cheat sheet that shows the base versions of PHP offered in some major distros:
| Distro | PHP Version |
|---|---|
| Ubuntu 12.04 | 5.3.10 |
| Ubuntu 14.04 | 5.5.9 |
| Ubuntu 16.04 | 7.0 |
| CentOS 6 | 5.3.3 |
| CentOS 7 | 5.4.16 |
| Debian 7 | 5.4.45 |
| Debian 8 | 5.6.20 |
If you need a more recent version, there are a number of third party repositories that offer them. For instance, these articles will walk you through upgrading to PHP 7 on Ubuntu 14.04 and CentOS 7:
RE: “How do I know which PHP version I’m using?”
When logged in to the server
php -v
will show you the PHP version information
Almost all recent Linux distros come with PHP 5.4+. You can first check which version of PHP the distro uses before you create the droplet from here: http://distrowatch.com/ Also you can check after you create the droplet and install PHP with the command php -v.