Question
Why hasn't DigitalOcean updated its Ubuntu stack to include the latest version of PHP?
- Posted April 9, 2020
- PHP
Hi - I have built (and am building) a fairly complex Wordpress-based business news portal that’s hosted on a Ubuntu 18 container here. I notice that the PHP version is slightly out of date, which is having a knock-on effect on my set-up.
Do we know when DO plan to update their distributions?
I have successfully updated the rest of the stack, based on the guides.
Alternatively, is their a step-by-step guide to update PHP to the latest stable release?
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Hi,
I believe that typically the versions installed with a distribution are updated by Ubuntu and their maintainers, and often this includes security fixes only rather than large upgrades.
Since, for whatever reason, it’s not up-to-date you could opt to switch to packages maintained by other people. One popular one which gets fairly regular updates is ondrej/php which you can find and read about here: https://launchpad.net/~ondrej/+archive/ubuntu/php .
I’ve had a quick look for a guide and the one I’ve found is a few years old but the process should be pretty similar if you’re able to work through any issues that arise.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-upgrade-to-php-7-on-ubuntu-14-04
I couldn’t say if or when DO themselves might update their distribution but hopefully those two links might help you in the right direction.