Should I upgrade to PHP 8.x?

[dev77]

I run an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server on Linode. I'm currently using PHP 7.4. Both EspoCRM and WordPress sites run just fine. Is there any "important" reason I should upgrade to PHP 8? It is kind of a PITA to do from the command line (I don't use a cpanel facility) and don't want to do it unless there is a really good reason. Has EspoCRM been totally 'vetted' for this new version of PHP? Maybe someone has a bash script to upgrade PHP for Ubuntu?

[yuri]

No reason. But in a year or so we'll drop PHP 7.4. We usually drop version support after a few month as the version is not security supported. See https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php

[dev77]

Thanks for the answer. I'm researching how to have have two versions of PHP on Ubuntu and choose which version for a specific application. That said I think I'll first just upgrade to PHP 8.0 and I think all my Wordpress sites plug Piwigo and EspoCRM will run on it. PHP 7.4 goes EOL in Nov so I assume EspoCRM will drop 7.4 by the beginning of the new year.

Is it worthwhile to run the PHP-FPM variant for EspoCRM that gets maybe two hits a day (from me only!)? Seems to me the traditional 'mod' install will work just fine.

[AgentT]

Run your CRM from a docker container, you can have very specific versions, code and even a different version of ESPO all together. Then you don't have to worry much about your system configurations messing with the CRM. Docker is great.

[yuri]

Apache mod is fine for your case.

[dev77]

Docker is an option but from what I understand it has a substantial learning curve. I would not even know where to install a docker instance of EspoCRM much less know the URL to execute the app! A traditional EspoCRM install coupled with their simple terminal-based update command works so well... never (or hardly ever) is there an issue with it.