Add support for PHP 8.1 in Local

I’d like to be able to run PHP 8.1 on my Local sites,

Also just noting that the PHP versions we have available are not up-to-date with latest patches (PHP 8.0.0 should be 8.0.12, 7.4.1 should be 7.4.26, etc)

Thanks for the feature request @sc0ttkclark !

We have an issue in our bug tracker to update those minor versions, but I added a note to make PHP 8.1 an option.

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Hello there,

Thanks for your reply :smiley:

Do you have any ETA when LocalWP will support PHP 8.1?

Thanks
Carlos R.

Thanks for the comment! No specific ETA, but I’ll keep pushing for it to be soon!

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So we’re now at patch version 8.0.15 and I just downloaded and installed an update for Local (macOS), but it’s still only showing PHP 8.0.0. Seems like the last release would have been a good time to do minor housekeeping like bumping the versions but it didn’t happen? :cry:

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I like to use Local for WP & Laravel tinkering on Windows.

I wanted to try Laravel 9 that was just released… but it requires PHP 8.0.2.

Update PHP already…

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I’m starting to run into more and more PHP packages that require PHP 8.0.2 – thanks to using Symfony packages – and this is preventing me from using them in my WP plugins. If nothing else, it would be helpful if we could get the latest version of 8.0 if not 8.1 at this time.

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3 months

:sob:

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Looking forward to having 8.1 available as well.

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Would love to see this soon as well, any updates on an ETA @ben.turner ? Thanks in advance!

Hello @ben.turner
I would like to start theme developing with new SAGE 10 on local, but there’s 8.02 neccesarry. Can you please provide us any information, when you will upgrade the php version.

Hello @ben.turner

It’s possible to add php 8.1 or >= 8.02. It’s very important for install sage 10 :pray:t3:

Thank’s,

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Hi @ben.turner,

I had to move from Local to MAMP because PHP 8.0.2 isn’t supported, and I’m using Sage10 to develop themes which needs 8.0.2

I miss using Local! Is it possible to update the PHP version to 8.0.2?

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8.1 or an updated version of 8.0 would be great.

I’ve been using Local for the past couple of years and it’s far simpler than my previous Vagrant based setup. It’s fast and convenient for WordPress development.

The challenge I have now, and that many other people are running into, is that some newer projects require 8.0.2 at a minimum. One of the most popular starter themes, Sage by Roots, has that requirement for example.

This is the first time I’ve found Local to be unable to create a suitable environment for modern WordPress development.

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Since there isn’t a date on when this can be released, I thought I’d add this here if you haven’t already figured a way to get around this:

  1. [preferred] According to the Composer docs here, you can emulate your PHP environment like so in your composer.jsonfile:
{
    "config": {
        "platform":{
            "php":"8.0.2"
        }
    }
}

This adds a spoof to your platform so that even though you’re not really running PHP 8.0.2, it will install dependencies as such.

  1. Remove the vendordirectory and run:
composer install --ignore-platform-reqs

Obviously, this is a temporary solution to get you going, but hopefully it will help.

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Still at 8.0.0 while PHP is at 8.1.4.

For those using Sage, you should be able to install dependencies by using the site shell. Don’t run composer from your command line, as this will install based on what you have globally on your system (likely ^8.0.2 or 8.1.x). Right click on the site in Local, Open Site Shell, and run composer from there. It should install based on the Local PHP version.

Still. Understanding as a dev that no update is without complication, this can’t possibly be one of the more difficult updates to make. :frowning_face:

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Hi all,

If you haven’t seen me around the forums, I’m the Product Manager on the Local team. :wave: I wanted to post and acknowledge that we’ve heard you and we’re on it. Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as we would like to be either.

For some transparency, Local is (and, thus our engineers are) responsible for compiling each version of PHP we include in the Local downloads ourselves; we don’t rely on a 3rd party package manager to handle this building for us. Why not? Good question! “That’s how it has always worked” is the honest answer. We’re asking ourselves that too and exploring ways we can make this a faster process going forward.

This means that any new version of PHP, major, minor, or patch, has to be downloaded and recompiled to be included in a release, as well as the verification that we do to make sure it is still playing nicely with the database, web server, etc. Then multiply that across 3 operating systems (Mac/Linux/Windows).

I write that for transparency, not to make an excuse. We need to fix it, and our primary focus for Q2 of 2022 (April-May-June) is fixing how we handle these 3rd party services. Ideally, we have a solution that:

  1. Gets the latest versions of these tools in your hands ASAP
  2. Doesn’t require manual intervention from our team every time a new version is released, as it isn’t scalable for us either

Local shouldn’t be a blocker in your development workflows. First on that agenda is bringing us back in line with current versions (8.0.17 and 8.1.4) to unblock development. Then we’ll turn to building something more scalable for the future.

We’re listening; we know it’s frustrating, and our current goal for the team is around fixing it. I’ll post here as soon as I have news to share, and feel free to ping me to keep me honest. :slightly_smiling_face:

Thanks,
Austin

6 Likes

Thanx @austinwendt for the update. Keep up the good work!

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Thanks for the update and transparency Austin, always appreciated!

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@austinwendt that’s good to know but… it’s ~4 months since this was raised. When can we expect 8.1 support at least? Is that really June?

I like Local a lot and recommend it but it’s starting to feel like it’s not getting resources. I get that compiling and testing across 3 platforms takes time, but… 4 months. At least.