Installing PHP on Fedora: php-fpm and wiring it to a web server

PHP on Fedora comes from the distribution repositories — no third-party repo needed. F45 ships PHP 8.5, and it works right after installing.

Which packages

sudo dnf install php php-fpm php-cli

Package	Purpose	Without it
`php`	meta package with common extensions	bare CLI only
`php-cli`	command-line interpreter	no `php` command
`php-fpm`	FastCGI process manager	CLI only, no web serving

Measured version on F45:

php-8.5.12-1.fc45.x86_64

Verify the CLI first

php -v

PHP 8.5.12 (cli) (built: Oct 19 2026 17:02:46) (NTS gcc x86_64)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group

How many extensions are loaded:

php -m | grep -cE "^[a-z]"

Which configuration file is read — this matters more than anything, because editing the wrong file is the classic mistake:

php --ini

Configuration File (php.ini) Path: "/etc"
Loaded Configuration File:         "/etc/php.ini"
Scan for additional .ini files in: "/etc/php.d"

So: main config /etc/php.ini, per-extension files in /etc/php.d/*.ini. CLI picks changes up immediately; php-fpm must be restarted.

php-fpm is stopped by default

php-fpm -v
systemctl is-enabled php-fpm

PHP 8.5.12 (fpm-fcgi) (built: Oct 19 2026 17:02:46) (NTS gcc x86_64)
disabled

Installing does not start it:

sudo systemctl enable --now php-fpm
systemctl status php-fpm --no-pager

Its pool configuration lives in /etc/php-fpm.d/:

ls /etc/php-fpm.d/

www.conf

The listen = line in www.conf decides whether it uses a Unix socket or a TCP port — half of all nginx misconfigurations come from this mismatch.

Wiring nginx

sudo dnf install nginx
sudo tee /etc/nginx/conf.d/php.conf >/dev/null <<'EOF'
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name _;
    root /usr/share/nginx/html;
    index index.php index.html;

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    }
}
EOF
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx php-fpm

A probe:

echo '<?php phpinfo();' | sudo tee /usr/share/nginx/html/info.php
curl -s http://127.0.0.1/info.php | head -5

HTML coming back means it works. Delete info.php afterwards.

Wiring httpd (Apache)

sudo dnf install httpd php
sudo systemctl enable --now httpd
echo '<?php echo PHP_VERSION;' | sudo tee /var/www/html/v.php
curl -s http://127.0.0.1/v.php

With httpd’s mod_php you do not need php-fpm; with nginx you do.

Installing extensions

sudo dnf search php- | grep -i mysql     # find the package name first
sudo dnf install php-mysqlnd php-gd php-opcache
sudo systemctl restart php-fpm

Confirm with php -m. Extensions are separate RPMs, not pecl install — Fedora packages them so upgrades do not wipe them.

Common traps

Symptom	Cause
browser downloads the .php file	nginx lacks `location ~ \.php$`, or FastCGI is not connected
`502 Bad Gateway`	php-fpm not running, or socket path mismatch
php.ini change has no effect	you edited it but fpm needs `systemctl restart php-fpm`
extension installed but missing from `php -m`	installed for a different version prefix (e.g. `php84-php-*`)

Fedora repositories and dnf5 — installing packages
systemd services and timers — why php-fpm is not enabled
firewalld — opening 80/443
SELinux — restorecon after changing the document root
Official: PHP