How To Install php-cli on Debian 11

In this tutorial we learn how to install php-cli on Debian 11. php-cli is command-line interpreter for the PHP scripting language (default)

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install php-cli on Debian 11.

What is php-cli

php-cli is:

This package provides the /usr/bin/php command interpreter, useful for testing PHP scripts from a shell or performing general shell scripting tasks.

PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML.

This package is a dependency package, which depends on latest stable PHP version (currently 7.4).

There are three methods to install php-cli on Debian 11. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install php-cli Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install php-cli using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install php-cli

Install php-cli Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install php-cli using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install php-cli

Install php-cli Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install php-cli using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install php-cli

How To Uninstall php-cli on Debian 11

To uninstall only the php-cli package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove php-cli

Uninstall php-cli And Its Dependencies

To uninstall php-cli and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 11, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove php-cli

Remove php-cli Configurations and Data

To remove php-cli configuration and data from Debian 11 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge php-cli

Remove php-cli configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove php-cli configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge php-cli

Dependencies

php-cli have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install php-cli package on Debian 11 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.