`tkl-upgrade-php` not working

[JedMeister]

@ash34 tried our tkl-upgrade-php script on his v18.2 WordPress server and it failed - see #2073 (comment) for more info.

[marcos-mendez]

Hi @ash34,

I just tested this on a fresh TurnKey WordPress 18.2 appliance and everything works perfectly. Here's what I did:

1. Updated WordPress first (via the dashboard) — worked out of the box, no issues
2. Then upgraded PHP from 8.2 to 8.3 using tkl-upgrade-php — also worked flawlessly

The key takeaway: follow the natural order of things. Update the application first, then the runtime if needed.

Some important context on the PHP version notice:

• The message WordPress shows about PHP 8.3 is a recommendation, not a requirement
• WordPress 6.8 is fully compatible with PHP 8.0, 8.1, and 8.2 (source)
• WordPress still supports PHP as old as 7.2.24+ in legacy mode
• PHP 7.2/7.3 support will only be dropped in WordPress 7.0 (April 2026), and even then the minimum becomes 7.4 — not 8.3
• PHP 8.2 on Debian Bookworm is perfectly fine and receives security patches from Debian's security team

A word of caution: running bleeding-edge software in production is generally a bad practice. PHP 8.2 is the version that ships with Debian 12 Bookworm — it's thoroughly tested and all TurnKey LAMP-based appliances are built against it. Upgrading PHP independently from the distribution can introduce plugin incompatibilities, broken extensions, and loss of Debian security coverage.

That said, if you do need PHP 8.3, the tkl-upgrade-php script (which I contributed to TurnKey) handles it cleanly. Just make sure to:

• Update WordPress and all plugins before upgrading PHP
• Test your site after the upgrade
• Keep in mind you're now on a third-party PHP repo (packages.sury.org) instead of Debian's

I'd suggest closing this issue as it's working as expected.

— Marcos Méndez (@marcos-mendez) / POPSOLUTIONS

[OnGle]

This is still somewhat of a concern, as the version of wordpress that stopped working should of also supported this version of PHP.

Still this shouldn't be considered a serious bug, instead we should consider adding a notice or additional confirmation to the script reminding users to backup and/or confirm that the version of their current software supports the targeted version of PHP before updating PHP.

[ash34]

I can confirm that the tkl-update-php works but only on a fresh install of the Wordpress appliance (for me at least). This was tested successfully on a clean lab installation but my main prod site was the one that failed previously so maybe it has a plug-in which doesn’t like the script.

[marcos-mendez]

Can you please @ash34 list the php modules you have php version you are leaving and php version you ar going to?

[ash34]

[PHP Modules]
calendar
Core
ctype
curl
date
dom
exif
FFI
fileinfo
filter
ftp
gd
gettext
hash
iconv
imagick
intl
json
libxml
mbstring
mysqli
mysqlnd
openssl
pcntl
pcre
PDO
pdo_mysql
Phar
posix
random
readline
Reflection
session
shmop
SimpleXML
sockets
sodium
SPL
standard
sysvmsg
sysvsem
sysvshm
tokenizer
xml
xmlreader
xmlwriter
xsl
Zend OPcache
zip
zlib

[Zend Modules]
Zend OPcache

Version 8.2.30 to 8.3.30

[ash34]

More info of the failure when the upgrade is performed on a site that is not a fresh WP install.

After the tkl-upgrade-php and systemctl restart apache2 a refresh of the browser produces the following message:

"It appears that the MySQL extension is missing from your PHP installation, even though WordPress requires it."

[JedMeister]

Thanks for the additional info.

TBH I don't understand!? - looking at the modules you've listed it shows both pdo_mysql & mysqli - which both come from php-mysql package!?

What TurnKey version is your prod server? If unsure run turnkey-version.