How to Install PHP 8.4 on Garuda|Arch|Manjaro

CloudSpinx
February 24, 2025
6:34 pm
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PHP is an HTML embedded programming language that runs on the server. It’s a popular programming language for creating webpages and Web applications. PHP is utilized in some of the most popular online content management systems, such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. PHP 8.4 is now ready for production and is a major upgrade and release of the PHP programming language since version 8.3.

In this brief post, we’ll install PHP 8.4 on the Garuda Linux operating system. Make sure you have a fresh Garuda Linux system up and running, which may be in the cloud, on an on-premise virtualization platform, or on a VirtualBox or Vagrant provided machine.

Let’s have a look at the features of PHP 8.4 before we start installing it on Garuda|Arch|Manjaro Linux system.

Features of PHP 8.4

The following are the features of PHP 8.4:

Sodium: AEGIS-128L and AEGIS256 support
New array_find, array_find_key, array_any, and array_all functions
New grapheme_str_split function
BCMath: New bcdivmod function
Intl: New intltz_get_iana_id function and IntlTimeZone::getCanonicalID method
Curl: New CURL_HTTP_VERSION_3 and CURL_HTTP_VERSION_3ONLY constants for HTTP/3 support
Curl: curl_getinfo – CURLINFO_POSTTRANSFER_TIME_T support
Curl: New CURLOPT_PREREQFUNCTION option
Curl: New CURLOPT_DEBUGFUNCTION option
Curl: New CURLOPT_SERVER_RESPONSE_TIMEOUT option to replace CURLOPT_FTP_RESPONSE_TIMEOUT
Curl: New CURLOPT_TCP_KEEPCNT option
phpinfo: Show PHP Integer Size information
Mbstring: New mb_trim, mb_ltrim, and mb_rtrim functions
Date: New DateTime(Immutable)::createFromTimestamp methods
New rounding modes in round() function
Date: New DateTime(Immutable)::get/setMicrosecond methods
New request_parse_body function
PCRE2 Upgrade and Regular Expression Changes
Curl: curl_version() feature_list support
New http_(get|clear)_last_response_headers functions
New mb_ucfirst and mb_lcfirst functions

Install PHP 8.4 on Garuda|Arch|Manjaro

The default version of PHP available in Garuda|Arch|Manjaro Linux repository is 8.4.

To begin, let’s update the system:

sudo pacman -Syu

Install PHP 8.4 by executing the command once the system has been updated.

$ sudo pacman -S php
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Package (1)  New Version  Net Change  Download Size

extra/php    8.4.4-1       31.49 MiB       5.37 MiB

Total Download Size:    5.37 MiB
Total Installed Size:  31.49 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y

Verify PHP version installed.

$ php -v
PHP 8.4.4 (cli) (built: Feb 11 2025 18:24:50) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.4.4, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies

We have PHP 8.4.x installed, as you can see from the result. The minor release version may change if you conduct this installation at a later time.

Install PHP 8.4 Extensions

By attaching extension name to php-, you may install PHP 8.4 extensions. See the example below, which installs the fundamental PHP extensions I need for my development and hosting of apps.

sudo pacman -S php-apache php-cgi php-fpm php-gd  php-embed php-intl php-redis php-snmp

Accept the installations prompts:

resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Package (16)        Old Version  New Version  Net Change  Download Size

extra/apache                     2.4.63-1       6.41 MiB       1.67 MiB
extra/apr                        1.7.5-3        1.16 MiB       0.27 MiB
extra/apr-util                   1.6.3-2        0.67 MiB       0.16 MiB
extra/gd                         2.3.3-8        0.65 MiB       0.15 MiB
extra/libheif                    1.19.5-1       1.65 MiB       0.51 MiB
extra/liblzf                     3.6-5          0.05 MiB       0.02 MiB
extra/net-snmp                   5.9.4-6        8.53 MiB       2.00 MiB
extra/php-igbinary               3.2.16-2       0.10 MiB       0.04 MiB
extra/php           8.4.4-1      8.4.4-1        0.00 MiB               
extra/php-apache                 8.4.4-1       18.49 MiB       3.58 MiB
extra/php-cgi                    8.4.4-1       22.02 MiB       3.61 MiB
extra/php-embed                  8.4.4-1       18.47 MiB       3.57 MiB
extra/php-fpm                    8.4.4-1       22.07 MiB       3.67 MiB
extra/php-gd                     8.4.4-1        0.12 MiB       0.03 MiB
extra/php-redis                  6.1.0-3        1.03 MiB       0.25 MiB
extra/php-snmp                   8.4.4-1        0.06 MiB       0.02 MiB

Total Download Size:    19.56 MiB
Total Installed Size:  132.98 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:      101.49 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y

Using pacman -Qi, you can see package information.

$ pacman -Qi php
Name            : php
Version         : 8.4.4-1
Description     : A general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://www.php.net/
Licenses        : PHP-3.01
Groups          : None
Provides        : php-interpreter=8.4  php-intl=8.4.4
Depends On      : libxml2  curl  libzip  pcre2  argon2  oniguruma
Optional Deps   : None
Required By     : php-apache  php-cgi  php-embed  php-fpm  php-gd  php-igbinary  php-snmp
Optional For    : None
Conflicts With  : php-intl
Replaces        : php-intl
Installed Size  : 31.49 MiB
Packager        : Pierre Schmitz <[email protected]>
Build Date      : Tue 11 Feb 2025 09:24:50 PM EAT
Install Date    : Mon 24 Feb 2025 09:12:38 PM EAT
Install Reason  : Explicitly installed
Install Script  : No
Validated By    : Signature

Running PHP 8.4 with Apache on Garuda|Arch|Manjaro

In this demo, we are going to test PHP 8.4 with Apache. Enable PHP on Apache as follows:

Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file with your favorite editor and make the following changes;

$ sudo vim /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

#comment the line:
#LoadModule mpm_event_module modules/mod_mpm_event.so

#and uncomment the line:
LoadModule mpm_prefork_module modules/mod_mpm_prefork.so

#Append this at the end of the LoadModule list:
LoadModule php_module modules/libphp.so
AddHandler php-script .php

#Append this at the end of the Include list:
Include conf/extra/php_module.conf

Create test index.php file in /srv/http directory:

sudo vim /srv/http/index.php

Add the following contents to the created file above:

<html>
<body>
<div style="width: 100%; font-size: 40px; font-weight: bold; text-align:center;">
<?php
    print "Hello World";
?>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Restart httpd.service:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Access http://server_ip_or_hostname/index.php

Running PHP 8.4 with Nginx on Garuda|Arch|Manjaro

Stop and disable httpd service:

sudo systemctl disable --now httpd

Install Nginx:

sudo pacman -S nginx

Enable nginx:

sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

Install php-fpm package:

sudo pacman -S php-fpm

Edit the configuration:

$ sudo vim /etc/php/php-fpm.conf
error_log = log/php-fpm.log

Set user and group:

$ sudo vim /etc/php/php-fpm.d/www.conf
user  = www-data
group = www-data

#uncomment the following line:
security.limit_extensions = .php .php3 .php4 .php5 .php7

When you’re finished, start and activate the service:

sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm

Confirm status:

$ systemctl status php-fpm
● php-fpm.service - The PHP FastCGI Process Manager
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/php-fpm.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2025-03-24 20:28:47 EAT; 2s ago
   Main PID: 129238 (php-fpm)
     Status: "Ready to handle connections"
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 3104)
     Memory: 7.1M
        CPU: 102ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/php-fpm.service
             ├─129238 php-fpm: master process (/etc/php/php-fpm.conf)
             ├─129239 php-fpm: pool www
             └─129240 php-fpm: pool www

Feb 24 20:28:47 garuda systemd[1]: Starting The PHP FastCGI Process Manager...
Feb 24 20:28:47 gruda systemd[1]: Started The PHP FastCGI Process Manager.

Create test index.php file in /srv/http directory:

sudo touch /srv/http/index.php

Add the following contents to the created file above:

<html>
<body>
<div style="width: 100%; font-size: 40px; font-weight: bold; text-align:center;">
<?php
    print "Hello World";
?>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Change the Nginx settings to send PHP scripts to the FastCGI server:

$ sudo vim /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
location ~ \.php$ {
            root           /srv/http/;
            fastcgi_pass   unix:/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
            fastcgi_index  index.php;
            fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /scripts$fastcgi_script_name;
            include        fastcgi.conf;
        }

Restart nginx and php-fpm:

sudo systemctl restart php-fpm nginx

Access http://server_ip_or_hostname/index.php

Conclusion.

This concludes our tutorial on installing PHP 8.4 on Garuda|Arch|Manjaro Linux. Enjoy developing and hosting your applications on Garuda|Arch|Manjaro Linux with PHP 8.4. Cheers!

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