How to Install PHP 8.3 for Nginx on Ubuntu 24.04

To install and configure PHP 8.3 with Nginx on Ubuntu 24.04, proceed with the following steps.

Step 1 : Begin by updating your package index to ensure you have the latest version of available packages.

sudo apt update

Step 2 : You can search for available PHP versions using the following command:

apt-cache search php8.3

Step 3 : Install PHP 8.3 core packages including CLI and FPM:

sudo apt install php8.3 php8.3-cli php8.3-fpm

Step 4 : Install frequently used PHP extensions like MySQL, cURL, XSL, GD, etc., using:

sudo apt install php8.3-{mysql,curl,xsl,gd,common,xml,zip,xsl,soap,bcmath,mbstring,gettext,imagick}

Explanation of Extensions:

- mysql: Enables PHP to communicate with MySQL databases.

- curl: Allows making HTTP requests from within PHP scripts.

- xsl: Facilitates interaction with XML documents using XSLT.

- gd: Provides image manipulation capabilities to create, modify, and output image files.

- common: Includes shared files essential for various PHP extensions.

- xml: Enables parsing and generation of XML documents.

- zip: Allows creation, reading, and modification of zip archives.

- soap: Facilitates communication with SOAP-based web services.

- bcmath: Provides arbitrary-precision arithmetic functions.

- mbstring: Supports multibyte character encodings.

- gettext: Facilitates localization and translation of web applications.

- imagick: Allows manipulation of images using the ImageMagick library.

- Verify PHP version

Step 5 : Ensure PHP 8.3 is installed correctly by checking its version:

php -v

Step 6 : Edit your Nginx configuration file for your site (e.g., example.com) to include PHP processing directives.

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;

    root /var/www/html/example.com;
    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        include fastcgi_params;
    }

    location ~ /\.ht {
        deny all;
    }

    error_log  /var/log/nginx/example.com_error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/example.com_access.log;
}

Step 7 : Enable your Nginx site configuration file by creating a symbolic link from the sites-available directory to the sites-enabled directory.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Step 8 : Check the syntax of your Nginx configuration to ensure there are no errors:

sudo nginx -t

Step 9 : Restart Nginx to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 10 : Create a PHP file (e.g., info.php) in your web root directory

sudo nano /var/www/html/example.com/info.php

Add the following line:

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

Step 11 : Navigate to your domain (e.g., http://example.com/info.php) in a web browser to see the PHP information page.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed PHP 8.3 for Nginx on Ubuntu 24.04.