In this tutorial we’ll install most awaited php version in CWP control panel as php switcher. This easy guide will guide you upon how to install PHP 8 easily.

PHP 8.3 comes with numerous improvements and new features such as:

• Typed Class Constants
• Added json_validate function
• Dynamic class constant and Enum member fetch support
• class_alias() supports aliasing built-in PHP classes
• New #[\Override] attribute
• New stream_context_set_options function
• PHP CLI Lint (php -l) supports linting multiple files at once
• Fallback value support for PHP INI Environment Variable syntax
• Random extension: New \Random\Randomizer::getFloat() and nextFloat() methods
• Random extension: New \Random\Randomizer::getBytesFromString method
• gc_status() returns additional GC information

PHP 8.3 will not support your current php scripts/cms/themes. Check before shifting to php 8.3., Latest version of WordPress works great with it also check the theme and plugin support by the devs.

Step 1 :
Building files which are required to compile php 8.3

Centos 7/el7 :

yum install oniguruma oniguruma-devel gcc make gcc-c++ cpp kernel-headers.x86_64 libxml2-devel openssl-devel bzip2-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel freetype-devel openldap-devel postgresql-devel aspell-devel net-snmp-devel libxslt-devel libc-client-devel libicu-devel gmp-devel curl-devel libmcrypt-devel pcre-devel sqlite-devel db4-devel enchant-devel libXpm-devel mysql-devel readline-devel libedit-devel recode-devel libtidy-devel libtool-ltdl-devel libwebp libwebp-devel expat expat-devel libargon2 libargon2-devel  

 
Centos 8/stream/el8 :

yum install oniguruma oniguruma-devel gcc make gcc-c++ cpp kernel-headers.x86_64 libxml2-devel openssl-devel bzip2-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel freetype-devel openldap-devel postgresql-devel aspell-devel net-snmp-devel libxslt-devel libc-client-devel libicu-devel gmp-devel curl-devel libmcrypt-devel pcre-devel sqlite-devel libdb-devel enchant-devel libXpm-devel mysql-devel readline-devel libedit-devel recode-devel libtidy-devel libtool-ltdl-devel libwebp libwebp-devel expat expat-devel libmemcached libmemcached-devel libargon2 libargon2-devel  

Now we’ll build libzip and pcre2 :
Install EPEL :

yum install epel-release

Then install some more dependencies and remove the libzip package :
Centos 7 :

rpm -e --nodeps libzip libzip-devel
yum -y install cmake3 cmake zlib-devel --enablerepo=epel

Centos 8 :

rpm -e --nodeps libzip libzip-devel
yum install cmake zlib-devel
ln -s /usr/bin/cmake /usr/bin/cmake3

Installing Latest version Libzip from source :

cd /usr/local/src
rm -rf libzip*
wget https://github.com/mysterydata/md-disk/raw/main/libzip-1.10.0.tar.gz
tar zxvf libzip*
## for centos 7 :
cd libzip*
## for centos 8 :
cd libzip*/
mkdir build
cd build
/usr/bin/cmake3 ..
make && make install

Installing Latest version pcre2 from source :

cd /usr/local/src
rm -rf pcre2*
wget https://github.com/PCRE2Project/pcre2/releases/download/pcre2-10.42/pcre2-10.42.zip -O pcre2.zip  
unzip pcre2.zip
## for centos 7 :
cd pcre2-*
## for centos 8 :
cd pcre2-*/
./configure
make && make install

Install Latest libavif for new AVIF GD image support:

cd /usr/local/src
rm -rf master* libavif-* build-dir
wget https://github.com/mysterydata/md-disk/raw/main/libavif-0.11.1.zip
unzip libavif-0.11.1
mkdir build-dir
cd build-dir
#Run this if you've centos 7/el7:
cmake3 ../libavif-0.11.1
#Run this if you've centos 8/stream/el8 or up:
cmake ../libavif-0.11.1
make
make install

Step 2 :
Configuring pkg-config path variables

run the below command :

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/lib64/pkgconfig

After you installed deps and exporting path variable continue to install php 8 with this steps :

For centos 7/EL7 :

rm -rf /usr/local/php-83
mkdir -p /usr/local/php-83
cd /usr/local/php-83
wget http://php.net/distributions/php-8.3.4.tar.gz
tar zxvf php-8.3.4.tar.gz
cd php-8.3.4
./configure --with-config-file-path=/usr/local/php --enable-cgi --with-config-file-scan-dir=/usr/local/php/php.d --with-zlib=/usr --enable-mbstring --with-zip --enable-bcmath --enable-pcntl --enable-ftp --enable-exif --enable-calendar --enable-sysvmsg --enable-sysvsem --enable-sysvshm --with-tidy --with-curl --with-iconv --with-gmp --with-pspell --enable-gd --with-avif --with-jpeg --with-freetype --enable-gd-jis-conv --with-webp --with-zlib-dir=/usr --with-xpm --with-openssl --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd --with-gettext=/usr --with-bz2=/usr --with-mysqli --enable-soap --enable-phar --with-xsl --with-kerberos --enable-posix --enable-sockets --with-external-pcre --with-libdir=lib64 --with-mysql-sock=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock --enable-intl --with-password-argon2 --enable-litespeed --with-ldap=/usr --with-ldap-sasl=/usr --with-imap --with-imap-ssl --with-litespeed
make
make install

For centos 8/EL8/alamlinux 8 :

rm -rf /usr/local/php-83
mkdir -p /usr/local/php-83
cd /usr/local/php-83
wget http://php.net/distributions/php-8.3.4.tar.gz
tar zxvf php-8.3.4.tar.gz
cd php-8.3.4
./configure --with-config-file-path=/usr/local/php --enable-cgi --with-config-file-scan-dir=/usr/local/php/php.d --with-zlib=/usr --with-zip --enable-bcmath --enable-pcntl --enable-ftp --enable-exif --enable-calendar --enable-sysvmsg --enable-sysvsem --enable-sysvshm --with-tidy --with-curl --with-iconv --with-gmp --with-pspell --enable-gd --with-avif --with-jpeg --with-freetype --enable-gd-jis-conv --with-webp --with-zlib-dir=/usr --with-xpm --with-openssl --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd --with-gettext=/usr --with-bz2=/usr --with-mysqli --enable-soap --enable-phar --with-xsl --with-kerberos --enable-posix --enable-sockets --with-external-pcre --with-libdir=lib64 --with-mysql-sock=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock --enable-intl --with-password-argon2 --enable-litespeed --with-ldap=/usr --with-ldap-sasl=/usr --with-imap --with-imap-ssl --with-litespeed
make
make install
curl -s -L https://www.alphagnu.com/upload/mbstring.sh | bash

it will take some time depends on your server speed when it is finished you can check the php version via command :

php -v

eg :

PHP 8.3.1 (cli) (built: Jan  4 2024 05:42:06) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.3.1, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies

if you’ve any question comment below

Work perfect, thank you!

I got some error after install :

[root@XXX php-8.3.1]# php -v
PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'imagick.so' (tried: /                                               usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20230831/imagick.so (/usr/local/li                                               b/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20230831/imagick.so: cannot open shared object                                                file: No such file or directory), /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zt                                               s-20230831/imagick.so.so (/usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-2023083                                               1/imagick.so.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)) in                                                Unknown on line 0
PHP 8.3.1 (cli) (built: Feb 21 2024 12:43:06) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.3.1, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
 

which OS version you're using el7 or el8 ?

After installation and activation (on one of my accounts on the server) work very overload and i had slow respond ... 😕

On 2/21/2024 at 6:33 PM, cwp user said:

I got some error after install :

[root@XXX php-8.3.1]# php -v
PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library 'imagick.so' (tried: /                                               usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20230831/imagick.so (/usr/local/li                                               b/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20230831/imagick.so: cannot open shared object                                                file: No such file or directory), /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zt                                               s-20230831/imagick.so.so (/usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-2023083                                               1/imagick.so.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)) in                                                Unknown on line 0
PHP 8.3.1 (cli) (built: Feb 21 2024 12:43:06) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.3.1, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
 

 

On 2/21/2024 at 11:55 PM, Sandeep B. said:

which OS version you're using el7 or el8 ?

el7 

→ System Info
CPU Model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 v4 @ 2.40GHz
CPU Details: 2 Core (1600 MHz)
Distro Name: CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009
(Core)
Kernel Version: 3.10.0
Platform: x86 64 openzixe

CWPpro version: 0.9.8.1176 | CWP Secure Kernel: Inactive

 

• Apache version: Apache/2.4.57
• PHP version: 8.3.1
• MySQL version: 10.4.33-MariaDB
• FTP version: 1.0.47
• SSH Port: 7676
• MySql Port: 3306
• Web Servers: apache-only

Edited February 26Feb 26 by cwp user

On 2/26/2024 at 1:26 PM, cwp user said:

 

el7 

please check the PHP build log for any error also if you've low RAM the PHP will fail add a swap to your OS and retry