We have an Ubuntu 18.10 VM in Google Cloud Platform and while PHP v7.2 is installed, it hasn’t been automatically updated the way most of the other packages have been. We need to update PHP to a minimum of v7.4 and I’m not sure what’s preventing PHP from being updated.
Oh, and it’s WordPress that wants the PHP upgrade.
2
Answers
Ubuntu 18.10 hasn’t been supported in about 3 years – end of support was July of 2019. 18.04, the LTS version uses PHP 7.2. Ubuntu 20.04 supports PHP 7.4.
Basically Ubuntu picks a version for a release and sticks with it. That’s good and bad in that it remains stable but you don’t get the newest versions. If you really need 7.4 then you’re going to have to step outside of the Ubuntu packages and do something as documented here. Ultimately, you need to use a new PPA –
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
PHP7.4 is not available for Ubuntu 18.10, this might help you update PHP to your desired version: https://www.serverlab.ca/tutorials/linux/administration-linux/how-to-install-php-7-4-on-ubuntu-18-04/
Mainly to add this PPA to your apt sources: https://launchpad.net/~ondrej/+archive/ubuntu/php/