Can't change PHP version during Drush update database command

Question

My server currently is using PHP 7.1 but I need to run PHP 7.4 during my drush commands on one of my sites. The following works for almost all commands:

/path/to/my/php74 ../vendor/bin/drush cr
/path/to/my/php74 ../vendor/bin/drush cim -y

But when I run the update database command I get an error:

/path/to/my/php74 ../vendor/bin/drush updb -y

or:

export DRUSH_PHP=/path/to/my/php74 && /path/to/my/php74 ../vendor/bin/drush updb -y

I get the following error:

In Process.php line 266:
                                                                                                                                                                      
  The command "/home/releases/74/vendor/drush/drush/drush updatedb:status --yes --no-entity-updates --strict=0 --uri=default --root=/ho  
  me/releases/74/web" failed.                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                      
  Exit Code: 255(Unknown error)                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                                      
  Working directory:                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                      
  Output:                                                                                                                                                             
  ================                                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                                      
  Warning: Unsupported declare 'strict_types' in /home/releases/74/vendor/phpstan/phpstan/bootstrap.php on line 1                        
                                                                                                                                                                      
  Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ':', expecting ';' or '{' in /home/releases/74/vendor/phpstan/phpstan/bootstrap.php on line 12   
                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                      
  Error Output:                                                                                                                                                       
  ================                                                                                                                                                    
                            

I'm guessing during the updb command it calls another command but it doesn't retain my php version.

Answer 1

I was able to run drush cr and drush cim using a specific php version via the command:

/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/bin/php ~/public_html/vendor/bin/drush cr and

/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/bin/php ~/public_html/vendor/bin/drush cim

This was not working, though, to run drush updb for which I was getting the error mentioned in my other post:

Your Composer dependencies require a PHP version ">= 7.4.0". You are running 7.3.31.

I could make the command line use php7.4 also for drush updb by exporting the PATH variable first with:

export PATH=/opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/bin:$PATH:$HOME/bin

Then running drush updb normally.

Answer 2

Maybe the configuration of your composer.json depends of old php-version, so your php-code is not fresh. Check it.

And... There is useful tool for using many versions of PHP on one computer - PhpBrew. You can try it for your software upgrade.