PHP version switcher for Windows (PowerShell Module)

This project offers version switching functionality of locally installed PHP versions as a PowerShell module.

It assumes PHP is used as an Apache module and restarts the Apache service after a version switch. This process can easily be adjusted, if PHP-FPM or any another setup is used.

Installation

The following instructions describe the installation of the module for the current user.

Download and move module to modules path

Download the latest release and extract it to a temporary directory. To use the latest version, clone the repository instead.

Create a path for the module. If applicable replace 1.1.0 with the actual downloaded version.

New-Item -Type Directory -Path $HOME\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\pvs\1.1.0

Copy src\pvs.psd1 and src\pvs.psm1 module to its new home.

Copy-Item C:\path\to\pvs\pvs.* -Destination $HOME\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\pvs\1.1.0\

Import module

The restart of the Apache service, requires elevated rights. That is why this module will only be imported in elevated PowerShell sessions. Loading and executing the pvs in a non-elevated PowerShell will fail the to restart the Apache service.

Add the following lines to the profile.ps1. To learn more about the PowerShell profiles and their locations, read about_profiles.

$currentPrincipal = New-Object Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal([Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent())
if ($currentPrincipal.IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole]::Administrator)) {
    Import-Module pvs
}

Configuration

The pvs comes with a configuration, which assumes various PHP versions are installed in C:\webserv. You can adjust this configuration to your needs.

For the "active" version a symlink is set to C:\webserv. This path is set in the PATH environment variable and the Apache configuration is referencing the symlink instead of the actual path.

To support both PHP 7 and PHP 8 releases, two configuration files for Apache httpd are required. Dependeing on the used major PHP version either one is referenced by a symlink.

httpd-php7.conf

# Load PHP7 Module
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html
LoadModule php7_module "C:/webserv/php/php7apache2_4.dll"
PHPIniDir "C:/webserv/php"

httpd-php8.conf

# Load PHP8 Module
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html
LoadModule php_module "c:/webserv/php/php8apache2_4.dll"
PHPIniDir "c:/webserv/php"

Note: As of PHP 8, the module no longer includes the major version number. See https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=78681

In src\pvs.psm1 you can configure the available versions and their paths. For example:

    $apacheConfigPath = "C:\webserv\httpd-2.4.41-win64-VS16\Apache24\conf\"
    $apacheConfigFile = $apacheConfigPath + "httpd.conf"
    $apacheConfigTarget = $apacheConfigPath + "httpd-php7.conf"

    switch ($version) {
        "7.0" {
            $phpPath = "C:\webserv\php-7.0.33-Win32-VC14-x64"
        }
        "7.1" {
            $phpPath = "C:\webserv\php-7.1.33-Win32-VC14-x64"
        }
        "7.2" {
            $phpPath = "C:\webserv\php-7.2.32-Win32-VC15-x64"
        }
        "7.3" {
            $phpPath = "C:\webserv\php-7.3.20-Win32-VC15-x64"
        }
        "7.4" {
            $phpPath = "C:\webserv\php-7.4.8-Win32-vc15-x64"
        }
        "8.0" {
            $phpPath = "C:\webserv\php-8.0.0alpha3-Win32-vs16-x64"
            $apacheConfigTarget = $apacheConfigPath + "httpd-php8.conf"
        }
        Default { throw "Provided PHP version $version is not supported" }
    }

This configuration shows a setup of all the latest PHP 7 minor versions and the latest QA release of PHP 8. It is possible to have multiple patch version of the same minor installed by providing the full version number, e.g. 7.4.6.

Usage

Open an elevated PowerShell, invoke pvs and provide the version as parameter.

C:\source> pvs 7.4
PHP Version Switcher 1.1.0 by Andi Rückauer

Switching to version: 7.4...

Removing SymbolicLink...

Creating SymbolicLink...



    Verzeichnis: C:\webserv


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
d----l        26.06.2020     09:15                php
Restarting Apache...

WARNUNG: Warten auf Beendigung des Diensts "Apache2.4 (Apache2.4)"...


C:\source> php -v
PHP 7.4.8 (cli) (built: Jun  9 2020 13:36:15) ( ZTS Visual C++ 2017 x64 )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
    with Xdebug v2.9.0, Copyright (c) 2002-2019, by Derick Rethans