Install PHP 7 from source on Raspbian/Debian

This tutorial cover Raspbian PHP 7 installation as well as Apache 2 configuration.

Prerequisite: Apache 2 installation exists

1. Download PHP source code from http://php.net/downloads.php and then decompressed it to have a PHP folder contains source code

2. On the terminal, install the libxml2:
sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev

3. Inside the PHP folder at step #1,configure the build:
./configure ––with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs ––with-mysqli ––enable-mbstring
Notes:

apxs was installed when installing Apache 2. In this example, the Apache 2 was installed at /usr/local/apache2.
The default location of php.ini is /usr/local/lib/. Use ––with-config-file-path=<path> if you need to put the php.ini file at somewhere else.
––with-mysql was removed, use ––with-mysqli instead (https://github.com/php-build/php-build/issues/348)
––enable-mbstring is required for using phpMyAdmin

4. Install:
sudo make
sudo make install

5. Verify:
php -v

Here are a few more steps to configure Apache 2 to support PHP:

1. Open the httpd.conf to edit:
sudo nano /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf

2. Make sure the following line exists and not commented:
LoadModule php7_module modules/libphp7.so

3. Add the following lines to let Apache parse PHP files:
<FilesMatch “\.phps$”>
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
</FilesMatch>

4. Enable mod_rewrite:
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
RewriteEngine On

5. Save and close Nano by pressing Ctrl+X and Y

6. Restart Apache 2:
sudo /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl restart

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