Install very old PHP versions to support outdated websites

[davidsneighbour]

I was installing Local and fixing some issues that occurred in this post.

But…

On my old installation, I was using Local mainly to keep supporting old WordPress installations that run on, for instance, PHP 5.6 only (eek, I know). My process was:

• changing everything in a secure local environment (I know my station and the tools installed)
• exporting the site as static website
• uploading the static website

This worked fine, with the added advantage that those websites are super fast. It helped me supporting content updates to websites of customers, that are related to Ebeneezer Scrooge and did not “require” a new website.

Local now works for the properly updated websites (and also comes already with PHP 8.3 - great!) and those old beasts can finally be laid to rest.

But for posterity’s sake, I have a question: Is it possible to somehow hack Local so that it installs an old PHP or even MySQL version? From what I see there are “lighting services” that contain those servers?

[Nick-B]

Hi @davidsneighbour

We generally try to keep things as current as possible and also keep the community updated when something is being updated or dropped off like when we cut PHP 5.6 here.

WordPress (& Local) Ends PHP 5.6 Support

Hi all! If you missed it in the WordPress community, with the release of WordPress v6.3 last week, WordPress no longer supports PHP 5.6. PHP 7.0.0 is the new minimum required version. What does that mean for Local? Well, if you had existing sites in Local running PHP 5.6, they’ll continue running. You’ll see an “Update” button next to the WordPress version on your Site Overview page in Local - don’t click it if you need to keep using PHP 5.6! As of today (15 Aug, 2023), Local still allows you…

We do have a feature request for some users requesting to be able to use older versions of PHP here as well. We’ve also seen users in the past create requests for a specific version of PHP (i.e. 7.0)

Ability to download/change specific PHP versions

Would it be possible to show a wider range of PHP versions that you can download? Right now we show four versions of PHP to select from. With one that comes shipped with the app and three others that we can download if needed. Could we have in the preferences menu an option to show all PHP versions to download or PHP versions to display in the PHP version dropdown shown on the install step/overview? I know there are some client sites that need plugins that rely on very specific versions of PH…

As far as “hacking” Local to install an older version of PHP I’m not sure how viable that is. I can’t say it’s something I’ve tried or have documentation to give you but others in the community may have some tricks to share. We’ll always recommend utilizing the latest PHP/WP versions when possible to maintain the best site security and performance, but we will always keep at least the last two or three previous versions readily available in the app for users to work with.

I know for using older versions of WordPress one of our users made a simple plugin here:

Core Rollback

[davidsneighbour]

I agree that security and performance are more critical. You would, however, not believe how many people come to me with years-old installations that are not upgradable due to plugins and themes being incompatible. This is just another point in my list to convince people to update their website’s infrastructure regularly and fix issues along the way. Funny how some languages have a term for “repair”, but not “maintenance”

Thanks for your explanations.

[Nick-B]

I can imagine! We often get users both on the Local and the hosting side who are trying to resurrect or maintain sites without updating anything. Some get complacent when a breaking change in PHP/WordPress hasn’t been introduced in awhile and then suddenly nothing works.