How to uninstall PHP 7 completely? (Kali Linux/Debian)

Question

On my distribution of Kali (2016.2) there was a PHP package v7.0.11 pre-installed. I'd like to use version 5.6 instead. What is the best way to remove it?

I've already tried, looking for some guides online, but PHP 7 is still pretty fresh, so there are not too many threads about it, especially while using Kali. Nevertheless, I found some clues but I didn't manage to do it properly, apparently. A lot of mess with dependencies, and overall, my whole Kali install is now broken.

After purging PHP 7, I'd like to install PHP 5.6, is there an easy way to do it with apt?

Fragment

I would strongly advise you to look into running contained development environments, ie with docker containers or vm's (using vagrant)? It's so much easier to spin up a specialized environment for what you're working with so you can run whatever you need on whichever versions you need - without messing with the installed OS packages – Cockchafer

This should be on serverfault.com or unix.stackexchange.com. This question isn't about coding but software/server config. SO is specifically for coding issues. – Bister

Thanks for the answers. Much appreciated! – Fragment

Answer 1

I installed php 5.6 following this tutorial : http://www.drupal8.ovh/en/tutoriels/178/how-to-install-php-on-linux

To remove php 7, you can try:

sudo apt-get purge php7.0-common

Mutual

Answer 2

This will remove all php7 version, be it php 7.0 or php 7.1 etc..

sudo apt-get purge php7.*

Garfish

Answer 3

I prefer to use sudo apt remove php7.0* This will remove php7 and related packages. It will also downgrade the version to the subsequent (lower) php version.

Mistrot

As far as I know php apt does not exists... – Explore

My bad, fixed it. Thank you. – Mistrot