PHP 8.5.4 and 8.4.19 Is Now on Fedora and RHEL‑Based Systems – What You Need to Know
If the newest PHP version is on your radar, you’ll notice that Remi Collet has just dropped RPM packages for PHP 8.5.4 (and the older 8.4.19) into the remi‑modular repository for Fedora ≥ 42 and Enterprise Linux ≥ 8. This means a fresh stack can be installed with a handful of dnf or yum commands, no more waiting for the next official update cycle.
Getting the Right RPMs
The packages are built for both x86_64 and aarch64 architectures. If you’re on a standard RHEL‑style system that uses dnf 4, the “module” workflow is the cleanest path: simply run dnf module switch-to php:remi-8.5/common to swap in the 8.5 stream, or dnf module switch-to php:remi-8.4/common for 8.4. On Fedora, you’ll reset the default php module first with dnf module reset php, then enable the desired Remi stream with either dnf module enable php:remi-8.5 or dnf module enable php:remi-8.4. After that a plain dnf update pulls in all the new binaries.
Parallel Installation via Software Collections
If you want both versions side by side, for example, testing a new application against 8.5 while keeping production on 8.4, you can use the Software Collection wrappers. On an EL 8, 9 or 10 system run yum install php85 to pull in the 8.5 collection; the same command with php84 installs the older stream. The SC packages live next to the default ones but don’t interfere unless you explicitly change your web server’s PHP handler.
Extensions and Dependencies
Remi has tweaked a few dependencies for smoother operation on recent EL releases: the intl extension now links against libicu74, the mbstring module uses oniguruma5php instead of the older system library, and oci8 pulls in Oracle Instant Client 23.26 RPMs on both arches. If you rely on PECL or other third‑party extensions, a quick glance at the PHP extensions RPM status page will reveal which ones are already packaged.
What’s Next for Fedora
Fedora Rawhide is already shipping PHP 8.5.4, and the upcoming releases follow suit: Fedora 44 will ship 8.5.4, while Fedora 43 and 42 will keep 8.4.19 until a later point. If you’re building your stack on these distros, you can expect the Remi modules to surface in the official updates soon.
️ PHP version 8.4.19 and 8.5.4
RPMs of PHP version 8.5.4 are available in the remi-modular repository for Fedora ≥ 42 and Enterprise Linux ≥ 8 (RHEL, Alma, CentOS, Rocky...)
