Can't find php binaries after successfull installation

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

For various reasons I'm trying to reinstall PHP. I removed it with apt-get purge php, and added it again with apt-get install php. However, something funny is happening, in that it is installed but is unusable, and I don't know where it installed to either. When I run php -v I just see:

The program 'php' can be found in the following packages:
 * php7.0-cli
 * hhvm
Try: sudo apt install package>

and whereis php outputs php: /usr/share/php7.0-mcrypt /usr/share/php7.0-mysql /usr/share/php7.0-json /usr/share/php7.0-readline /usr/share/php7.0-curl /usr/share/php7.0-mbstring /usr/share/php /usr/share/php7.0-gd /usr/share/php7.0-common /usr/share/php7.0-opcache /usr/share/php7.0-xml /usr/share/php7.0-zip /usr/share/man/man1/php.1.gz, none of which are the actual PHP executable.

However if I run apt-get install php again then I get told php is already the newest version (1:7.0+35ubuntu6), so it is installed somewhere.

I haven't knowingly changed my $PATH variable, which I read could cause this, but here it is anyway: /home/myname/bin:/home/myname/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin.

I'm on 16.04.