stackoverflow - installing old php5.6 on ubuntu 16.04

instructions.md

Step 1: Remove all the stock php packages

List installed php packages with:

$>   dpkg -l | grep php| awk '{print $2}' |tr "\n" " "

and then remove unneeded packages with sudo aptitude purge your_packages_here or if you want to directly remove them all use :

$>    sudo apt-get purge `dpkg -l | grep php| awk '{print $2}' |tr "\n" " "`

Step 2: Add the PPA

$> sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

If you get add-apt-repository: command not found run the following command first :

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

• Install your PHP Version

$>    sudo apt-get update
$>    sudo apt-get install php5.6

You can install php5.6 modules too for example

sudo apt-get install php5.6-mbstring php5.6-mcrypt php5.6-mysql php5.6-xml

• Verify your version: if you have installed php5.6-cli

sudo php -v

• If you don't have php5.6-cli, put this on a .php file

<?php 
      //outputs php configuration info
      phpinfo(); 
?>