No update-alternatives in AlmaLinux 8 for PHP

Support
1

I run the command update-alternatives --config php and nothing shows up. I checked for the binaries and they are executables in the /usr/bin folder. Installed PHP versions are 7.4 from the AppStream repository and PHP 5.6 from the REMI repository.

ll /usr/bin/php*
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 6376328 Oct 11 01:34 /usr/bin/php
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      32 Feb 15 21:31 /usr/bin/php56 -> /opt/remi/php56/root/usr/bin/php
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      36 Feb 15 21:31 /usr/bin/php56-cgi -> /opt/remi/php56/root/usr/bin/php-cgi
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      33 Aug 11  2021 /usr/bin/php56-pear -> /opt/remi/php56/root/usr/bin/pear
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      38 Feb 15 21:31 /usr/bin/php56-phar -> /opt/remi/php56/root/usr/bin/phar.phar
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 6375784 Oct 11 01:34 /usr/bin/php-cgi
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root    4741 Oct 11 01:34 /usr/bin/phpize

With Java, I noticed they are symlinks to alternatives.

[root@alma8-webapps-dev alternatives]# ll /usr/bin/java*
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 22 Feb 10 00:39 /usr/bin/java -> /etc/alternatives/java
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 23 Feb 10 00:39 /usr/bin/javac -> /etc/alternatives/javac
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 25 Feb 10 00:39 /usr/bin/javadoc -> /etc/alternatives/javadoc
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 23 Feb 10 00:39 /usr/bin/javap -> /etc/alternatives/javap

One option is to rename the PHP 7.4 files, so I’ll rename them as follows:

mv /usr/bin/php /usr/bin/php74 
mv /usr/bin/php-cgi /usr/bin/php74-cgi

After that, I create new alternatives:

alternatives --install /usr/bin/php php /usr/bin/php74 1
alternatives --install /usr/bin/php php /usr/bin/php56 2
alternatives --install /usr/bin/php-cgi php-cgi /usr/bin/php74-cgi 1
alternatives --install /usr/bin/php-cgi php-cgi /usr/bin/php56-cgi 2

The entries are now in alternatives:

update-alternatives --config php

There are 2 programs which provide 'php'.

  Selection    Command
-----------------------------------------------
   1           /usr/bin/php74
*+ 2           /usr/bin/php56

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:

It has created symlinks to alternatives

 ll /usr/bin/php*
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      21 Feb 17 19:56 /usr/bin/php -> /etc/alternatives/php
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      32 Feb 15 21:31 /usr/bin/php56 -> /opt/remi/php56/root/usr/bin/php
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      36 Feb 15 21:31 /usr/bin/php56-cgi -> /opt/remi/php56/root/usr/bin/php-cgi
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      33 Aug 11  2021 /usr/bin/php56-pear -> /opt/remi/php56/root/usr/bin/pear
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      38 Feb 15 21:31 /usr/bin/php56-phar -> /opt/remi/php56/root/usr/bin/phar.phar
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 6376328 Oct 11 01:34 /usr/bin/php74
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 6375784 Oct 11 01:34 /usr/bin/php74-cgi
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      25 Feb 17 19:59 /usr/bin/php-cgi -> /etc/alternatives/php-cgi
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root    4741 Oct 11 01:34 /usr/bin/phpize

I tested updating PHP and it says PHP is no longer installed.

dnf update php
Last metadata expiration check: 0:28:58 ago on Fri 17 Feb 2023 07:41:07 PM AEDT.
Package php available, but not installed.
No match for argument: php
Error: No packages marked for upgrade.

How would I get alternatives to work with multiple versions of PHP and still be able to perform updates?

2

Don’t use “alternatives”, but the “module” command instead.

See My PHP development Workstation - Remi's RPM repository - Blog

Notice, these SCL are not official AlmaLinux build, so better to ask in the right place

3

From redhat documentation.

so you must use remi repo to have this on almalinux 8

4

How would I set PHP 5.6 as the default instead of PHP 7.4? PHP 7.4 is from AppStream and PHP 5.6 is from REMI.

5

The official repository (AppStream) provides

  • base packages of PHP 7.4 and 8.0 to be installed as default/single version

Remi’s repository provides

  • base packages of PHP 7.2 to 8.2 to be installed as default/single version
  • software collections of PHP 5.6 to 8.2 to be installed as multiple versions beside the default one

See the Wizard for proper configuration / installation

and as explained there, the php56-syspaths package allows you to force the default version (system-wide for all users), but this means you have to only use software collections.

BTW, I usually recommend setting the newer version as default, so have an officially maintained version, and use SCL for the older version and for legacy apps.

Please, remind that all versions <= 7.4 are retired and not maintained by the PHP project (even if the available packages have security fixes backported). See the supported versions page.