Will nextcloud 17.0.2 support php 7.4?

Dear all,

I couldn’t find this information in documentation or the github. Would someone, who may know the answer, share it here? I clumsily upgraded my php from 7.3 to 7.4 and killed my nextcloud server. Downgrading php back to 7.3. doesn’t solve the problem probably due to several other dependencies that need to be downgraded as well. Any information on this issue will be very much appreciated and will help make the decision of whether reinstalling the whole darn thing or waiting out.

Thanks in advance.

This question is difficult to answer, because the PHP 7.4 tests haven’t yet been finished and the planned release date for 17.0.2 is December 19th 2019. I think it is very unlikely that the work will be finished until that date.

If you use the search function in the upper right corner of this forum, you will find this discussion and several others, covering the same point:

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Thank you for the reply and insightful information. I will plan accordingly.

I did actually see the message you attached, but I was already using nextcloud 17.0.1 and the only error I was seeing was nextcloud not being compatible with php >7.3; therefore I thought the solution recommended in that thread would not apply to my case. I am sorry if I occupied unnecessary space/time here.

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They normally don’t add new features in already released versions. So NC 18 will support it, NC 17 probably not. See also this related topic on github:

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Mid January doesn’t sound too bad, especially considering my set up only serves as a family service. I am very comfortable in finding my way in arch based distros and did not have much experience with debian. Additionally, I truly don’t want to troubleshoot SElinux in Fedora; so the options are either sticking with the current installation and waiting for the major release in mid-January or exploring new adventures with Debian 10 (I decided that would be my choice for an alternative, non-rolling release OS). Based on limited availability of free time, and lack of comfort with Debian plus laziness in setting up everything again, I decided to wait a month without Nextcloud for this time. However, the problem is bound to recur due to the rolling-release nature of my OS, and I should probably make the switch when I have some time that I can dedicate for this task, and learn more about Debian as a side benefit during this process.

Hi @hakayova

I had the same issue, but I was able to quickly solve it by installing several versions of php in my server. I had this since I have different apps that are not fully qualified for php7.3 and php7.4 respectively.
If you run Apache, you can do this by modifying the virtual hosts, please check the following link for all the details: https://tecadmin.net/install-php-debian-9-stretch/

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Thank you @scorpion for your reply. Unfortunately this is not possible in Arch-based linux distributions. You can only have the most up-to-date version of a software package, since they are rolling-release. If you choose to not upgrade a certain package, it may still not function normally due to its dependencies.

I did bite the bullet and built a new host with Debian buster (and php 7.3). Boy, it was a steep learning curve, since settings are so different between different distros, but I was able to get it work eventually. I think projects that require interdependence between several applications (e.g. LAMP stack) like Nextcloud, do not play well with rolling-release llinux distributions. Lesson learned the hard way.

As an ubuntu user for many years, I recently had to learn the rolling-release “feature” of Arch as well.
Instead of going back to Ubuntu though, I plan to switch my server services to Docker images to avoid this issues once for all. Eventually you can consider this solution too.
On the other hand, hopefully for the last time, I have to wait until NC18 is out, because I can’t install Docker on my machine w/o upgrading the OS (included PHP7.4).

I have to admit that I am not very familiar with the Docker and its use in general; however I looked into that option and saw that Nextcloud has a Docker image with two flavors. It contains SQLlite but would still require a web server, and that made me wonder if it would create an issue of compatibility at that level as well. It is probably very unlikely. My lack of knowledge in Docker also prevents me from imagining how to upgrade a container in time as newer versions are released. I am worried that particular process would also introduce some pitfalls of the similar nature. Thank you for reading my ramblings, lol! Please let me know how it goes for you and if you thought it was recommendable.

Hi, I have archlinux and I run php5.6,7.2,7.3 and 7,4 in parallel. I use php-fpm for all versions other than “the latest”, and as to php itself, there are AUR package php56 and php72. For php7.3, you can compile one yourself following archliux forum thread However, it happens that I have been unable to run nextcloud with my freshly installed php7.3, so I am using nextcloud 17.0.1 with php7.4 by deactivating version check. I get lots of errors in the log, but it looks like it is operating correctly.

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Thank you so much for this information. I truly did not know this was
possible. If it is not too much to ask, how did you disable the version
check in nextcloud? All this information is very helpful indeed.

Please read the posting marked as “solution” to find the answer.

The fact that the Docker image requires a web server, it wont be a problem because you can run the webserver as as docker-image too, with the PHP version required by NC.
If other services need other PHP versions, you can run another webserver on another container.
Additionally, you can also create your own NC docker image (based on the official one) containing all the dependencies you like (webserver, PHP etc).
Of course, at some point in time the cpu-load might soffer, but it all depends on your needs.
If I find the time to work on this, I’ll keep you posted.

I found the following tutorial a very good starting point in the Docker world. Give a try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqMOX6JJhGo

Thank you @igiona for the link. I liked it quite a lot. They do a good job in teaching, with hands on experience.

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Excellent! thanks!