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I posted last month on running PHP4 and PHP5 independently on separate local domains on a single Apache server under Ubuntu. This post updates my original post.

The goal here is to create two domains:
http://php5/ — running PHP5 via an Apache module
http://php4/ — running PHP4 through CGI

The steps below are adapted from the guide found here:
http://www.howtoforge.com/apache2_with_php5_and_php4

Step 1: Install LAMP Server Including Apache2 and PHP5

If you haven’t already done this, you can just follow the normal steps using apt-get as outlined here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ApacheMySQLPHP

Step 2: Update Sources List to Install php4-cgi

php4 is no longer included in the Ubuntu repositories as it is no longer supported. But it can be found in the breezy repositories. This was the step that took me the longest to figure out as there were no explicit instructions regarding this.

Add the following lines to the bottom of the file:

Step 3: Install php4-cgi

Run the following commands from the command line:

Step 4: Create Your Document Roots

You can put the document roots for your http://php5/ and http://php4/ sites anywhere. For lack of a better general location, I am going to put them under the standard /var/www/ directory. The directory tree will look like so:

Commands:

Step 5: Configure Apache Sites

First, for the php4 site, add to the /var/www/php4/apache directory the file found here:
http://klenwell.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/templates/apache/php4.conf

Then enable this site, by linking the config file to apache’s sites-enabled directory:

Do the same thing with the php5 file (found here) in the /var/www/php5/apache directory.

Step 6: Create Local Domain php4 and php5 in /etc/hosts

Open up your hosts file in the editor:

Add this line to your file:

Step 7: Create Test Files

Open a new file in an editor:

Add this line:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Copy the file to /var/www/php5/www/:

Step 8: Restart the Apache Server

Using apache2ctl:

Finally, test the results by opening the following two urls in your browser:
http://php5/
http://php4/

You should see the PHP Info page for each site displaying the appropriate PHP version. For the php4 site, it should look something like this:

phpinfo() for php4 site

If that all works, you are ready to adapt as suits you. You can link any php4 projects you are working on to the php4/www directory.

The same principles should apply to other systems and circumstances, though you’ll have to work out the details for yourself.

This guide generalizes details of my own successful installation. If you try this and have any issues, please leave a comment here.