How to install PHP from Source on Ubuntu
Compiling PHP from source code can be essential when you require a specific PHP version that isn’t available through your Ubuntu distribution or a Personal Package Archive (PPA). This approach is particularly useful if you need to enable custom modules, such as pcntl, which is disabled by default on Ubuntu. By compiling PHP yourself, you gain the flexibility to customize your PHP environment to meet your exact requirements.
Install Requirements
Installing PHP from source code requires many packages and libraries installed. You can install it with the command
apt-get install -y build-essential autoconf automake pkgconf re2c libbz2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libxml2-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libssl-dev libzip-dev libmcrypt-dev libreadline-dev libonig-dev libsodium-dev bison libsqlite3-dev libfreetype-dev libsystemd-dev libwebp-dev libxslt1-dev libkrb5-dev libldap2-dev
Download and extract PHP source code
cd /usr/local/src/
wget https://www.php.net/distributions/php-8.3.8.tar.gz
tar -xzvf php-8.3.8.tar.gz
cd php-8.3.8
Configure PHP
This step allows you to enable or disable PHP modules.
./configure \
--with-pic \
--enable-embed \
--prefix=/usr/serverok/php \
--with-config-file-scan-dir=/usr/serverok/php/lib/php.conf.d \
--enable-pcntl \
--enable-fpm \
--with-fpm-systemd \
--with-curl \
--enable-gd \
--with-gettext \
--with-jpeg \
--with-freetype \
--with-kerberos \
--with-openssl \
--with-mhash \
--with-mysql-sock=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock \
--with-mysqli=mysqlnd \
--with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd \
--with-pear \
--with-sodium \
--with-webp \
--with-xsl \
--with-zlib \
--with-zip \
--enable-bcmath \
--enable-calendar \
--enable-exif \
--enable-ftp \
--enable-sockets \
--enable-soap \
--enable-mbstring \
--enable-intl \
--with-ldap
Compile and Install PHP
make
make install
cp ./php.ini-production /usr/serverok/php/lib/php.ini
cp /usr/serverok/php/etc/php-fpm.conf.default /usr/serverok/php/etc/php-fpm.conf
Create php-fpm pool file
Create file
vi /usr/serverok/php/etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf
Add following content
[www]
user = www-data
group = www-data
listen = /run/php/php-fpm.sock
listen.owner = www-data
listen.group = www-data
pm = dynamic
pm.max_children = 5
pm.start_servers = 2
pm.min_spare_servers = 1
pm.max_spare_servers = 3
catch_workers_output = yes
php_flag[display_errors] = on
php_admin_value[error_log] = /var/log/fpm-php.log
php_admin_flag[log_errors] = on
Start php-fpm on boot
Create a service file
vi /etc/systemd/system/php-fpm.service
Add following content
[Unit]
Description=PHP FastCGI Process Manager (ServerOK)
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/run/php/php-fpm.pid
ExecStart=/usr/serverok/php/sbin/php-fpm --daemonize --pid /run/php/php-fpm.pid
ExecReload=/bin/kill -USR2 $MAINPID
ExecStop=/bin/kill -QUIT $MAINPID
PrivateTmp=true
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Start php-fpm service
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable php-fpm
systemctl start php-fpm
systemctl status php-fpm
Install PHP modules from PECL
To install PHP modules from PECL, run
apt install -y libmagick++-dev
/usr/serverok/php/bin/pecl install APCu
/usr/serverok/php/bin/pecl install redis
/usr/serverok/php/bin/pecl install imagick
To enable the PHP modules, edit
vi /usr/serverok/php/lib/php.ini
add
extension=imagick.so
extension=apcu.so
extension=redis.so
Restart php-fpm service
systemctl resart php-fpm
Enable php-fpm for your website
To enable php-fpm for Apache, add the following code in the Apache VirtualHost entry.
<FilesMatch \.php$>
SetHandler proxy:unix:/run/php/php-fpm.sock|fcgi://127.0.0.1
</FilesMatch>
For nginx, use socket
/run/php/php-fpm.sock