Installing PHP8.4 in latest Nginx Unit 1.34.2 installation

[zafar-2020]

Bug Overview

I installed latest 1.34.2 version in the machine Ubuntu 24.04. It is installing php 8.3 rather than 8.4

I can see PHP8.4 in official docker images. How can I install php8.4 with Unit. Thanks

Expected Behavior

PHP 8.4 should work

Steps to Reproduce the Bug

unit version: 1.34.2
configured as ./configure --prefix=/usr --statedir=/var/lib/unit --control=unix:/var/run/control.unit.sock --runstatedir=/var/run --pid=/var/run/unit.pid --logdir=/var/log --log=/var/log/unit.log --tmpdir=/var/tmp --user=unit --group=unit --tests --openssl --njs --otel --modulesdir=/usr/lib/unit/modules --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --cc-opt='-g -O2 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer -ffile-prefix-map=/data/builder/debuild/unit-1.34.2/pkg/deb/debuild/unit-1.34.2=. -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -specs=/usr/share/dpkg/no-pie-compile.specs -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fcf-protection -fdebug-prefix-map=/data/builder/debuild/unit-1.34.2/pkg/deb/debuild/unit-1.34.2=/usr/src/unit-1.34.2-1~noble -fPIC' --ld-opt='-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -flto=auto -ffat-lto-objects -specs=/usr/share/dpkg/no-pie-link.specs -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now -Wl,--as-needed -pie

apt install unit-dev unit-php
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
  debsuryorg-archive-keyring
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove it.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libphp-embed libphp8.3-embed php-common php8.3-cli php8.3-common php8.3-opcache php8.3-readline
Suggested packages:
  php-pear
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libphp-embed libphp8.3-embed php8.3-cli php8.3-common php8.3-opcache php8.3-readline unit-dev unit-php
The following packages will be upgraded:
  php-common

Environment Details

• Target deployment platform: [e.g. AWS/GCP/local cluster/etc...] Local
• Target OS: [e.g. RHEL 9/Ubuntu 24.04/etc...] Ubuntu 24.04
• Version of this project or specific commit: [e.g. 1.4.3/commit hash] 1.34.2
• Version of any relevant project languages: [e.g. Kubernetes 1.30/Python 3.9.7/etc...]PHP 8.4

Additional Context

No response

[ac000]

Bug Overview

I installed latest 1.34.2 version in the machine Ubuntu 24.04. It is installing php 8.3 rather than 8.4

I Assume this is because Ubuntu 24.04 comes with PHP 8.3

I can see PHP8.4 in official docker images. How can I install php8.4 with Unit. Thanks

Expected Behavior

PHP 8.4 should work

Our language module packages will support the version of PHP that comes with the target distro.

If you want to use some other version you will need to build the language module from source, this may also require building the required version of PHP from source.

[zafar-2020]

Thanks @ac000 can you please guide me to the url or something for steps.

I already had that machine with PHP8.4 with nginx as server. Thought getting rid of extra layer by moving to nginx-unit might help.

[zafar-2020]

I have currently, Nginx Reverse Proxy > Nginx > PHP FPM,
I want Nginx Reverse Proxy > Nginx-unit with PHP8.4 support

[zafar-2020]

php -v
PHP 8.4.5 (cli) (built: Mar 13 2025 15:36:20) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.4.5, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v8.4.5, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

[ac000]

Here's one way to do it, though it's a little involved.

Another way is to just do a normal build from source.

You wouldn't need to do all that, just configure and build unit, don't think it matters how you do it in this case, just a ./configure && make -j4 should do Then you can configure and build the php language module, you probably want to give it a name like php8.4. You may also need to specify the location of the PHP 8.4 config script and libraries E.g.

$ ./configure php --module=php8.4  \
                  --config=/usr/lib64/php8.4/bin/php-config  \
                  --lib-path=/usr/lib64/php8.4/lib64

Adjust paths as necessary.

Then if that builds OK, you can copy build/lib/unit/modules/php8.4.unit.so to the appropriate directory, unitd--version should show the location of the modulesdir

[thresheek]

I don't think PHP 8.4 is officially supported by Ubuntu 24.04, since they ship PHP 8.3 in the official repos. Unfortunately we cant support unofficial PHP builds via binary packages for the distros.

Docker variant uses a PHP 8.4 variant that is available there (not based on Ubuntu 24.04).

[zafar-2020]

Thanks @ac000 @thresheek. I was able to build and seems to do the trick. Thanks for the guidance.

Would be good to sync drivers with latest supported version of the language, and may be option to go back upto 3 versions for ease.