How to upgrade to PHP 8 on CentOS 7

In this tutorial I will show you how to upgrade to PHP version 8 on CentOS 7. Having the latest stable PHP 8 will fix many older vulnerabilities. Lets follow these quick steps below to upgrade your PHP version.

Before moving forward make sure to have a backup image of your server.

Open your console windows and connect to your server.
Lets start by disabling all the old PHP versions.

yum-config-manager --disable remi-php56
yum-config-manager --disable remi-php70
yum-config-manager --disable remi-php71
yum-config-manager --disable remi-php72
yum-config-manager --disable remi-php73
yum-config-manager --disable remi-php74

3. Lets run the following commands individually to download the PHP 8 packages we need.

wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
wget http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm
rpm -Uvh remi-release-8.rpm epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

4. We will now run the commands to install the latest PHP version 8 software.

yum install yum-utils
yum-config-manager --enable remi-php80
yum update -y

5. You should now be on the latest version of PHP 8. You can check your version by typing in php -v in the console window.

6. Update all your websites and or applications to use the latest PHP build you installed.

I hope this article was helpful, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. If you would like to be notified of when I create a new post, you can subscribe to my blog alert.

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May 1, 2021 Patrick Domingues

The error message you received is indicating that there are missing dependencies when you’re trying to use the `rpm` command. Here’s a breakdown of what it means:

1. `(redhat-release >= 8.8 or centos-stream-release >= 8) is needed by remi-release-8.8-1.el8.remi.noarch`: This part of the error message is telling you that the package `remi-release-8.8-1.el8.remi.noarch` requires either `redhat-release` version 8.8 or higher or `centos-stream-release` version 8 or higher to be installed on your system. It seems that your system currently has an older version of these packages.

2. `rpmlib(RichDependencies) = 8 is needed by epel-release-8-19.el8.noarch`: This part of the error message is telling you that the package `epel-release-8-19.el8.noarch` requires a specific version of `rpmlib` (RichDependencies), which is version 8. Your system might have an older version of `rpmlib` installed.

To resolve these dependency issues, you can try the following steps:

1. Update your system: Make sure your system is up to date by running the following commands, which will update all packages:
sudo yum update
or
sudo dnf update

The command to use depends on whether you’re using CentOS or Red Hat.

2. After updating your system, try installing the packages again using the `rpm` command or any package manager you prefer.

3. If you’re still facing dependency issues, you may need to manually download and install the required packages mentioned in the error message. You can usually find these packages on the official CentOS or Red Hat repositories. Use the package manager (either `yum` or `dnf`) to install them.

For example:
sudo yum install redhat-release
or
sudo dnf install redhat-release

Repeat this process for any other missing dependencies mentioned in the error message.
After following these steps, you should be able to install the desired packages without encountering dependency issues.

10 Comments

Heavy says:

November 14, 2021 at 4:32 am

thanks for the post. the update was successful, but php codes appear on my page, they are not interpreted, what can I do?

1. Patrick Domingues says:
  
  November 15, 2021 at 8:11 am
  
  Hello, thank you for stopping by. What do you mean PHP code appear on your page? When you load the website you see a string of PHP loading with the content? Can you provide the full string that it is showing?
  
Barry says:

May 16, 2023 at 3:36 pm

Did not work. All commands seemed to run successfully, no errors, but the final php -v still shows PHP 5.4.16.

1. Patrick Domingues says:
  
  May 17, 2023 at 4:58 am
  
  Hello Barry, I did not account for all the older php versions. Did you yum-config-manager --disable remi-php 54 ? I think that would be the version that you have mentioned. Also doesn’t hurt to throw a reboot at it.
  
Bob says:

September 21, 2023 at 12:02 am

on the rpm command I got:
error: Failed dependencies:
(redhat-release >= 8.8 or centos-stream-release >= 8) is needed by remi-release-8.8-1.el8.remi.noarch
rpmlib(RichDependencies) = 8 is needed by epel-release-8-19.el8.noarch

1. Patrick Domingues says:
  
  September 21, 2023 at 6:37 pm
  
  The error message you received is indicating that there are missing dependencies when you’re trying to use the `rpm` command. Here’s a breakdown of what it means:
  
  1. `(redhat-release >= 8.8 or centos-stream-release >= 8) is needed by remi-release-8.8-1.el8.remi.noarch`: This part of the error message is telling you that the package `remi-release-8.8-1.el8.remi.noarch` requires either `redhat-release` version 8.8 or higher or `centos-stream-release` version 8 or higher to be installed on your system. It seems that your system currently has an older version of these packages.
  
  2. `rpmlib(RichDependencies) = 8 is needed by epel-release-8-19.el8.noarch`: This part of the error message is telling you that the package `epel-release-8-19.el8.noarch` requires a specific version of `rpmlib` (RichDependencies), which is version 8. Your system might have an older version of `rpmlib` installed.
  
  To resolve these dependency issues, you can try the following steps:
  
  1. Update your system: Make sure your system is up to date by running the following commands, which will update all packages:
  sudo yum update
  or
  sudo dnf update
  
  The command to use depends on whether you’re using CentOS or Red Hat.
  
  2. After updating your system, try installing the packages again using the `rpm` command or any package manager you prefer.
  
  3. If you’re still facing dependency issues, you may need to manually download and install the required packages mentioned in the error message. You can usually find these packages on the official CentOS or Red Hat repositories. Use the package manager (either `yum` or `dnf`) to install them.
  
  For example:
  sudo yum install redhat-release
  or
  sudo dnf install redhat-release
  
  Repeat this process for any other missing dependencies mentioned in the error message.
  After following these steps, you should be able to install the desired packages without encountering dependency issues.
  
pat says:

October 24, 2023 at 7:50 am

My Centos7 system is uptodate using yum install redhat-release
however I also get the ERROR (redhat-release >= 8.8 or centos-stream-release >= 8) is needed by remi-release-8.8-1.el8.remi.noarch) is CENTOS 8 Required??

see: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75490236/install-remi-repository-on-centos-linux-release-8-5-2111-not-centos-8-stream

1. Patrick Domingues says:
  
  October 25, 2023 at 5:54 am
  
  At the time of writing, this was not an issue. PHP package must have been updated to request additional prerequisites.
  
Yeasin says:

November 10, 2023 at 10:41 am

Hi its awesome i upgraded the php version from 7.2 to 8 and its 8 now in instance but when I visit WordPress dashboard its still saying PHP version 7.2 why is that? can you please suggest me how to solve this one? please check the below screenshots

1. Patrick Domingues says:
  
  November 14, 2023 at 6:40 pm
  
  If you are hosting a website and have a control panel you can modify the php version there.
  Or Modifying Apache.
  Or Modifying .htaccess

Patrick Domingues