Remi ships PHP 8.4.26RC1 and 8.5.11RC1 RPM packages for Fedora and Enterprise Linux
PHP QA published release candidates for both active maintenance and Remi Collet already pushed matching RPMs to the modular repositories. Fedora 43 through 45 and Enterprise Linux 8 and newer can test the new builds today. Stable packages should follow on September 24, 2026, once the upstream testing window closes.
The dual RC tracks bundle every fix from the previous stable releases. PHP 8.5.10 shipped on August 27, 2026, patching const expression crashes, DOM stack overflows, and Opcache JIT register preservation bugs. PHP 8.4 carries its own maintenance rollup. The RC code matches upstream exactly. As Volker Dusch noted in the upstream announcement, the release team accepts nothing but security patches after the branch cut. That means your test environments will match production the moment the stable drop lands.
Repository layout and install paths
Both branches land in the remi-modular-test repository. Remi built packages for x86_64 and aarch64, covering RHEL, CentOS Stream, AlmaLinux, and Rocky Linux. Fedora users grab the same packages from the same repository. Switching the system module is a two-step command. dnf module switch-to php:remi-8.5 points your base PHP to the new branch. dnf --enablerepo=remi-modular-test update php* pulls the actual binaries. The modular switch is straightforward, though it does require a quick service restart to hand off PHP daemons to the new runtime.
Next, the Software Collections path keeps parallel installs completely isolated. yum --enablerepo=remi-test install php85 drops PHP 8.5 into /opt/remi/php85/ without touching system defaults. yum --enablerepo=remi-test install php84 does the same for the maintenance track. These live parallel to your current PHP version, which matters when you're juggling multiple app stacks. Keep in mind that the modular repo also carries legacy branches for older RHEL releases, but those won't see new RCs.
Remi's repository has been the default RPM source for Fedora users for over a decade. That track record matters when upstream QA moves faster than distro release managers can keep up. Pulling directly from the test repo bypasses the distro freeze calendar entirely. At this point, you already know not to trust the official distro repos for bleeding edge versions.
No more 8.3 RCs. That ship sailed in December
PHP 8.3 entered security-only maintenance mode on December 30, 2025, according to a PHP internals announcement by Jakub Zelenka. PHP-8.3.30 is the final non-security release. Remi will keep 8.3 in the repos only as long as upstream ships security patches, but the feature timeline ended months ago. If you're still pinned to 8.3, you're locked into a strict security track until end of life. Time to plan a jump to 8.4 or 8.5.
Security work has been heavy across the recent cycle. PHP 8.5.9 squashed a BCMath out-of-bounds write and a PDO_PGSQL SQL injection. Earlier drops covered SOAP memory corruption, FPM status endpoint XSS, and DOM namespace issues. The RC build should include all of that plus any last-minute CVE patches before the September 24 freeze. It's arguably competing with the tightest security patches we've seen from the PHP group in years.
On top of that, Remi dropped PHP 8.6.0beta3 into the test repository for admins who want to peek at what comes next. It's a beta, so treat it like one, but the pipe operator and NoDiscard attribute from 8.5 have already shipped. The 8.6 beta is the logical next step if you're already migrating and want to skip a maintenance cycle later.
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