How can I easily switch between PHP versions on Mac OSX?

I would like to test my application on PHP 5.3 up to PHP 7.0.

Where and how can I install the versions and how can I switch them by running a small script?

14 Answers

If you have both versions of PHP installed, you can switch between versions using the link and unlink brew commands.

For example, to switch between PHP 7.4 and PHP 7.3

brew unlink php@7.4 brew link php@7.3 

PS: both versions of PHP have be installed for these commands to work.

I found this very good tutorial on how to install and switch php versions on OSX.

I can switch the version like

$ sphp 7.0 => PHP 7.0 $ sphp 7.3 => PHP 7.3 $ sphp 7.4 => PHP 7.4 

Exactly what I want!

Example: Let us switch from php 7.4 to 7.3

brew unlink php@7.4 brew install php@7.3 brew link php@7.3 

If you get Warning: php@7.3 is keg-only and must be linked with --force Then try with:

brew link php@7.3 --force 

Using brew

Show current version

$ php -v 

Change to different version
(eg. changing from 5.5.x to version 7.0.latest) :

$ brew unlink php55 $ brew install php70 

If you install PHP with homebrew, you can switch between versions very easily. Say you want php56 to point to Version 5.6.17, you just do:

brew switch php56 5.6.17 

i think unlink & link php versions are not enough because we are often using php with apache(httpd), so need to update httpd.conf after switch php version.

i have write shell script for disable/enable php_module automatically inside httpd.conf, look at line 46 to line 54

Follow my steps:

1) Check installed php versions by brew, for sure everything good

> brew list | grep php #output php56 php56-intl php56-mcrypt php71 php71-intl php71-mcrypt 

2) Run script

> switch-php 71 # or switch-php 56 #output PHP version [71] found Switching from [php56] to [php71] ... Unlink php56 ... [OK] and Link php71 ... [OK] Updating Apache2.4 Configuration /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf ... [OK] Restarting Apache2.4 ... [OK] PHP 7.1.11 (cli) (built: Nov 3 2017 08:48:02) ( NTS ) Copyright (c) 1997-2017 The PHP Group Zend Engine v3.1.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2017 Zend Technologies 

3) Finally, when your got above message, check httpd.conf, in my laptop:

vi /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf 

You can see near by LoadModule lines

LoadModule php7_module /usr/local/Cellar/php71/7.1.11_22/libexec/apache2/libphp7.so #LoadModule php5_module /usr/local/Cellar/php56/5.6.32_8/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so 

4) open httpd://localhost/info.php

i hope it helpful

I liked the switcher idea because I'm working of different version at the moment so what you need is

 brew install brew-php-switcher 

then brew-php-switcher version

for example brew-php-switcher 7.4

How to:

• Find installed PHP versions
• Switch from default PHP package to a versioned package

% brew search php brew-php-switcher php-cs-fixer php@7.3 phplint phpstan pup php ✔ php-cs-fixer@2 php@7.4 ✔ phpmd phpunit php-code-sniffer php@7.2 phpbrew phpmyadmin pcp % brew unlink php % brew link php@7.4 

brew link --overwrite php@7.3 

Works perfectly for me :-)

if you are using homebrew, then it allows multiple versions of a formula to be installed. hence,

1. brew unlink is used to detach a version of formula from usage.
2. brew link is used to attach a version of formula to usage.

for example, if you have php 7.4 and 8.0 both installed and want to switch between them assuming you are currently using 7.4, then it can be done as :

brew unlink php@7.4

brew link php@8.0

delete all row with "php" in: nano ~/.zshrc

after that it will work: brew unlink php@7.4 && brew link php@8.0

I prefer to use phpbrew where you can easily install ($ phpbrew install 8.1.3 +default) and switch (phpbrew switch 8.1.3) the used php version.

If you have installed php with latest version on your local system and using using homebrew then to switch to older version, run following commands, Here, we are switching to 7.4

brew unlink php brew install php@7.4 brew link php@7.4 

Old question but it's still a difficulty to have a quick way to switch between php versions in 2022. I use Laravel valet and switching PHP versions requires a re install of valet to work. I basically have two custom functions defined in my .zhsrc file, but I think this will work for bash too:

 switchphp7() { valet stop brew unlink php@8.1 brew services stop php@8.1 brew link --force --overwrite php@7.4 brew services start php@7.4 composer global update rm -f ~/.config/valet/valet.sock valet install valet start } switchphp8() { valet stop brew unlink php@7.4 brew services stop php@7.4 brew link --force --overwrite php@8.1 brew services start php@8.1 composer global update rm -f ~/.config/valet/valet.sock valet install valet start } 

And then just run them in the command line:

switchphp8 

This works reliably for me, however, if you use Valets virtual SSL certificates, the command line will ask for admin account password for every ssl certificate you have linked which is potentially annoying if you have loads of them. It's not a bug if it keeps asking, eventually you will allow all if you keep typing password/use touch id.