A quick Vagrant file to get started with PHP 7.2

Vagrantfile-php7.2

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = '2'

@script = <<SCRIPT
# Fix for https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/livecd-rootfs/+bug/1561250
if ! grep -q "ubuntu-xenial" /etc/hosts; then
    echo "127.0.0.1 ubuntu-xenial" >> /etc/hosts
fi

# Install dependencies
add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
apt-get update
apt-get install -y apache2 git curl php7.2 php7.2-bcmath php7.2-bz2 php7.2-cli php7.2-curl php7.2-intl php7.2-json php7.2-mbstring php7.2-opcache php7.2-soap php7.2-sqlite3 php7.2-xml php7.2-xsl php7.2-zip libapache2-mod-php7.2

# Configure Apache
echo "<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /var/www/public
    AllowEncodedSlashes On

    <Directory /var/www/public>
        Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks
        DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
        AllowOverride All
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>" > /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
a2enmod rewrite
service apache2 restart

if [ -e /usr/local/bin/composer ]; then
    /usr/local/bin/composer self-update
else
    curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer
fi

# Reset home directory of vagrant user
if ! grep -q "cd /var/www" /home/ubuntu/.profile; then
    echo "cd /var/www" >> /home/ubuntu/.profile
fi

echo "** [PHP] Run the following command to install dependencies, if you have not already:"
echo "    vagrant ssh -c 'composer install'"
echo "** [PHP] Visit http://localhost:8080 in your browser for to view the application **"
SCRIPT

Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
  config.vm.box = 'ubuntu/xenial64'
  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080
  config.vm.synced_folder '.', '/var/www'
  config.vm.provision 'shell', inline: @script

  config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
    vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--memory", "1024"]
    vb.customize ["modifyvm", :id, "--name", "php7.2 app"]
  end
end

It would be nice to add this code in order to allow php <? shorthand.

# Allow the php shorthand <? from <?php
sed -i 's,^short_open_tag =.*$,short_open_tag = On,' /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

@grafxflow PHP short_tags shouldn't be enabled actually. They are deprecated in 7.4 and removed in 8.0 - so adding it in, renders this file un-updatable from a dependency standpoint. But, even using them should be considered a bad practice (and it is against PSR so it is a bad practice) as using them pretty much ensures that you CANNOT upgrade PHP when the later versions come out.

I agree with @jblac as using short tags is considered a bad practice. Since I never use them I never bothered to look at the setting. But feel free to modify this Vagrant file to your likings once you have pulled it in.

To be fair: by the end of next month support for PHP 7.2 has reached its end, so I might as well shut this gist down or upgrade to PHP 7.4 or even 8.0.