How To Install PHP 7.3 on Ubuntu / Debian

This guide will help you Install PHP 7.3 on Ubuntu or Debian Linux system. PHP is an open-source server-side scripting language which has been widely adopted for the creation of dynamic web pages. PHP is secure, fast, simple, efficient, flexible and a loosely typed scripting language.

For CentOS 7 , check out: How to Install PHP 7.3 on CentOS 7

Fedora: How to Install PHP 7.3 on Fedora

Install PHP 7.3 on Ubuntu / Debian

PHP 7.3 for Ubuntu and Debian is available from ondrej/php PPA repository. PHP 7.3 stable version has been released with many new features and bug fixes. Always get the latest news from PHP releases news.

Step 1: Add PHP 7.3 PPA

We need to add PPA repositories with PHP 7.3 packages/

Ubuntu Linux systems:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install lsb-release ca-certificates apt-transport-https software-properties-common -y
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

Debian Linux systems:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install lsb-release apt-transport-https ca-certificates software-properties-common
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/php.gpg https://packages.sury.org/php/apt.gpg
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://packages.sury.org/php/ $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/php.list'
sudo apt update

This PPA can be added to your system manually by copying the lines below and adding them to your system’s software sources.

Step 2: Install PHP 7.3 on Ubuntu / Debian

Once the PPA repository has been added, install php 7.3 on your Ubuntu / Debian Linux server.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install php7.3

Check version installed

$ php -v
PHP 7.3.33-14+ubuntu22.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 (cli) (built: Sep  2 2023 08:02:41) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.3.33, Copyright (c) 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
    with Zend OPcache v7.3.33-14+ubuntu22.04.1+deb.sury.org+1, Copyright (c) 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies

Step 3: Installing PHP 7.3 Extensions

Install PHP 7.3 extensions by using the syntax

 sudo apt-get install php7.3-<entension-name>

See example below

sudo apt install php7.3-cli php7.3-fpm php7.3-json php7.3-pdo php7.3-mysql php7.3-zip php7.3-gd  php7.3-mbstring php7.3-curl php7.3-xml php7.3-bcmath php7.3-json

You can confirm installed version of PHP extension using apt policy command:

$ apt policy php7.3-cli
php7.3-cli:
  Installed: 7.3.33-14+ubuntu22.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
  Candidate: 7.3.33-14+ubuntu22.04.1+deb.sury.org+1
  Version table:
 *** 7.3.33-14+ubuntu22.04.1+deb.sury.org+1 500
        500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

You may need to restart your Web server after installation of PHP.

# Apache
sudo systemctl restart apache2

# Nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Enjoy using the newly installed PHP 7.3 on Ubuntu or Debian Linux machine.

Books on Web Development that you can read:

• Best Books to learn Web Development – PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery
• Best Books To Master Web Design
• Best Books To Learn CSS & CSS3
• Best Books To Learn HTML & HTML5
• Best Apache and Nginx reference Books