After 3 hours of struggle, I was able to setup multiple versions of PHP and configured easy switching on Apache on a fresh install of elementary OS.

Welcome to the world of "everything is possible (except nvidia)" hehe

You can easily run PHP 5.6, 7.0 and 7.1 beside each other if you are using fpm (which everyone should use)

Vagrant, anyone? Have several projects with several "version" needs, eaxh with its vagrant machine.

@pagongski
That is actually unessecary complex.
:)
There is much easier ways to do it and it is supported.

@Linux I'm all ears for easier tools/processes. You mentioned fpm. Github - jordansissel?

Please share those easier ways. :)

You should give a try to Docker

@pagongski

It is super easy actually,
Install php-fpm for 5.6, 7.0 and 7.1.
enable mod_proxy, proxy_fcgi in apache

Add this to you virtualhost:
ProxyPassMatch ^/(.*\.php(/.*)?)$ unix:///run/YOURPHPPOOL|fcgi:/... retry=1

modify the phppool conf in /etc/php/7.0/fpm/pool.d/

@Obfuscator yes, thats another interesting way to do things like this.

@Linux ah ok, i understand. But i thought you meant different versions of not only php but everything else, i.e. mysql, postgresql, etc. All the inevitable stuff related to a project. Sometimes i have those requirements and with vagrant (or even docker, like mentioned above) we can contain everything easily.

Still, great tip for php. And much lighter. Thanks. :)

@pagongski
Oh, I understand then :)

I too have wasted a few hours trying this. It feels it should be easier.