Here is how you can quickly update PHP 7.0 to 7.1 on a Vultr Ubuntu domain.
Advertisement:
I have configured a number of Vultr domains with NGINX and PHP 7.1 FPM and today I realised I need to update PHP 7.0 to 7.1 to fix a few security exploits (read more here and here on securing Ubuntu in the cloud). PHP has a good page where you can keep up to date with PHP news here https://secure.php.net/. You can also view the PHP bug tracker to view bugs here. PHP aggregation user @php_net on twitter is good to follow, the official PHP twitter account is @official_php.
I have not noticed in daily Ubuntu package updates no option to update PHP 7.0 to 7.1, I must have to update manually.
WARNING: Backup your site and test this on a non production server before doing it on a live server. I had an issue with PHP 7.1 breaking WordPress 3.9 (mysql issues with some plugins) and I had to roll back to 7.0 (see rollback tips in troubleshooting below). WordPress says it is PHP 7.1 compatible but issues exist. WordPress 3.9 ditches “mysql” and used “mysqli” and when instead PHP 7.1 WordPress could not find “mysqli”?
List packages with updates
1 2 3 4 | sudo /usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check -p linux-libc-dev python3-apport python3-problem-report |
You can run the following to view upgradable packages (TIP: Backup NGINX and other configuration files before any upgrades).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 | apt list --upgradable Listing... Done apport/xenial-updates,xenial-updates,xenial-security,xenial-security 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.13 all [upgradable from: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.12] linux-generic/xenial-updates,xenial-security 4.4.0.101.106 amd64 [upgradable from: 4.4.0.87.93] linux-headers-generic/xenial-updates,xenial-security 4.4.0.101.106 amd64 [upgradable from: 4.4.0.87.93] linux-image-generic/xenial-updates,xenial-security 4.4.0.101.106 amd64 [upgradable from: 4.4.0.87.93] linux-libc-dev/xenial-updates,xenial-security 4.4.0-101.124 amd64 [upgradable from: 4.4.0-98.121] nginx/xenial,xenial 1.13.6-2chl1~xenial1 all [upgradable from: 1.13.3-1chl1~xenial1] nginx-common/xenial,xenial 1.13.6-2chl1~xenial1 all [upgradable from: 1.13.3-1chl1~xenial1] nginx-core/xenial 1.13.4-1chl1~xenial1 amd64 [upgradable from: 1.13.3-1chl1~xenial1] procmail/xenial-updates,xenial-security 3.22-25ubuntu0.16.04.1 amd64 [upgradable from: 3.22-25] python-cryptography/xenial 1.9-1+ubuntu16.04.1+certbot+2 amd64 [upgradable from: 1.7.1-2+certbot~xenial+1] python-openssl/xenial,xenial 17.3.0-1~0+ubuntu16.04.1+certbot+1 all [upgradable from: 17.0.0-0+certbot~xenial+1] python-requests/xenial,xenial 2.18.1-1+ubuntu16.04.1+certbot+1 all [upgradable from: 2.12.4-1+certbot~xenial+1] python-urllib3/xenial,xenial 1.21.1-1+ubuntu16.04.1+certbot+1 all [upgradable from: 1.19.1-1+certbot~xenial+1] python3-apport/xenial-updates,xenial-updates,xenial-security,xenial-security 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.13 all [upgradable from: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.12] python3-problem-report/xenial-updates,xenial-updates,xenial-security,xenial-security 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.13 all [upgradable from: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.12] python3-requests/xenial,xenial 2.18.1-1+ubuntu16.04.1+certbot+1 all [upgradable from: 2.12.4-1+certbot~xenial+1] python3-urllib3/xenial,xenial 1.21.1-1+ubuntu16.04.1+certbot+1 all [upgradable from: 1.19.1-1+certbot~xenial+1] |
Update your server packages
1 | sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade |
Reboot
1 | sudo shutdown -r now |
You should now see this on startup
1 2 | 0 packages can be updated. 0 updates are security updates. |
You can view your installed PHP configuration file and installed version by typing to following in your servers command line.
1 2 3 4 | # locate php.ini /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini /etc/php/7.0/cli/php.ini /etc/php/7.0/fpm/php.ini |
Now let’s install a package viewer
1 | sudo apt-get install apt-show-versions |
Search installed packages (or non-installed) PHP packages.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 | sudo apt-show-versions | grep php | more libapache2-mod-php7.0:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate libapache2-mod-php7.0:i386 not installed php-common:all/xenial 1:55+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php-xdebug:amd64/xenial 2.5.5-3+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php-xdebug:i386 not installed php7.0:all/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-cli:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-cli:i386 not installed php7.0-common:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-common:i386 not installed php7.0-curl:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-curl:i386 not installed php7.0-dev:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-dev:i386 not installed php7.0-fpm:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-fpm:i386 not installed php7.0-gd:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-gd:i386 not installed php7.0-imap:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-imap:i386 not installed php7.0-intl:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-intl:i386 not installed php7.0-json:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-json:i386 not installed php7.0-ldap:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-ldap:i386 not installed php7.0-mbstring:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-mbstring:i386 not installed php7.0-mysql:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-mysql:i386 not installed php7.0-opcache:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-opcache:i386 not installed php7.0-pgsql:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-pgsql:i386 not installed php7.0-phpdbg:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-phpdbg:i386 not installed php7.0-pspell:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-pspell:i386 not installed php7.0-readline:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-readline:i386 not installed php7.0-recode:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-recode:i386 not installed php7.0-snmp:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-snmp:i386 not installed php7.0-tidy:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-tidy:i386 not installed php7.0-xml:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-xml:i386 not installed php7.0-zip:amd64/xenial 7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.0-zip:i386 not installed |
Uninstall all local PHP related packages
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 | sudo apt-get remove php* ... After this operation, 35.7 MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y (Reading database ... 139182 files and directories currently installed.) Removing php7.0 (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php-xdebug (2.5.5-3+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing libapache2-mod-php7.0 (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-zip (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-xml (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-mbstring (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-dev (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-fpm (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-curl (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-gd (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-imap (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-intl (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-phpdbg (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-ldap (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-mysql (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-pgsql (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-pspell (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-recode (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-snmp (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-tidy (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-cli (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-json (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-opcache (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-readline (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php7.0-common (7.0.25-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Removing php-common (1:55+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ... |
Confirm packages are uninstalled
1 2 | sudo apt-show-versions | grep php > |
Install PHP 7.1 and common packages
1 | sudo apt-get install php7.1 php7.1-cli php7.1-common libapache2-mod-php7.1 php7.1-mysql php7.1-fpm php7.1-curl php7.1-gd php7.1-bz2 php7.1-mcrypt php7.1-json php7.1-tidy php7.1-mbstring php-redis php-memcached |
Verify PHP 7.1 installation
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 | apt-show-versions | grep php libapache2-mod-php7.1:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate libapache2-mod-php7.1:i386 not installed php-common:all/xenial 1:55+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php-igbinary:amd64/xenial 2.0.1-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+2 uptodate php-igbinary:i386 not installed php-memcached:amd64/xenial 3.0.3+2.2.0-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+3 uptodate php-memcached:i386 not installed php-msgpack:amd64/xenial 2.0.2+0.5.7-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+3 uptodate php-msgpack:i386 not installed php-redis:amd64/xenial 3.1.4-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php-redis:i386 not installed php7.1:all/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-bz2:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-bz2:i386 not installed php7.1-cli:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-cli:i386 not installed php7.1-common:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-common:i386 not installed php7.1-curl:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-curl:i386 not installed php7.1-fpm:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-fpm:i386 not installed php7.1-gd:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-gd:i386 not installed php7.1-json:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-json:i386 not installed php7.1-mbstring:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-mbstring:i386 not installed php7.1-mcrypt:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-mcrypt:i386 not installed php7.1-mysql:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-mysql:i386 not installed php7.1-opcache:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-opcache:i386 not installed php7.1-readline:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-readline:i386 not installed php7.1-tidy:amd64/xenial 7.1.11-1+ubuntu16.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 uptodate php7.1-tidy:i386 not installed |
Reboot
1 | sudo shutdown -r now |
See if the PHP 7.1 FPM service has started
1 2 | sudo systemctl | grep php > php7.1-fpm.service |
Restart PHP 7.1 FPM Service
1 | sudo systemctl restart php7.1-fpm.service |
Edit your /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default and change the fastcgi_pass from “7.0” to “7.1”
1 | sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default |
Edits:
1 2 3 4 5 | location ~ \.php$ { ... fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.1-fpm.sock; ... } |
Reload NGINX configuration and restart NGINX
1 2 3 4 | sudo nginx -t && sudo nginx -s reload && sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful [ ok ] Restarting nginx (via systemctl): nginx.service. |
Your website should now be back up and running PHP 7.1
Post Install Tasks
View this blog post on other useful linux commands.
Edit your PHP.ini file and add required changes (e.g upload sizes).
1 2 3 | sudo nano /etc/php/7.1/fpm/php.ini # upload_max_filesize = 2M + upload_max_filesize = 8M |
Troubleshooting
View PHP configuration values (add this to a debug.php and load in in a browser)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | <?php // Show all information, defaults to INFO_ALL phpinfo(); // Show just the module information. // phpinfo(8) yields identical results. phpinfo(INFO_MODULES); ?> |
I broke my WordPress 3.9 when I tried to update to PHP 7.1 so I rolled back to 7.0.
1 2 3 4 | sudo apt-get remove php* sudo apt-get -y install php7.0-fpm sudo apt-get -y install php7.0-mysql php7.0-curl php7.0-gd php7.0-intl php-pear php-imagick php7.0-imap php7.0-mcrypt php-memcache php7.0-pspell php7.0-recode php7.0-sqlite3 php7.0-tidy php7.0-xmlrpc php7.0-xsl php7.0-mbstring php-gettext service php7.0-fpm reload |
Google help had me stuck for a while when I had issues purging php 7.1.
Because my blog (with install steps) was down I used this site to help be find the commands to run.
Conclusion
Sometimes going with cutting edge tech you will go out on a limb, ensure you know and can restore a working site if need be.
Always have a backup and restore plan.
Hope this guide helps.
Donate and make this blog better
Ask a question or recommend an article
v1.35 WordPress 3.9 error with PHP 7.1