How to install multiple versions of XAMPP?

Question

I'm having trouble installing multiple versions of XAMPP on my machine. I am currently using version 1.7.7 and installed it in /opt/lampp, but I also need to install the previous version which is version 1.7.1. So I downloaded and installed version 1.7.1 in /opt/lampp2.

But when I run /opt/lampp2/lampp startcommand to start 1.7.1 version, why does XAMPP show that the version that is currently running is 1.7.7, when it should be 1.7.1?

Answer 1

The solution is have separate directories and create a sym link to /opt/lampp

Keep 1.7.7 as /opt/lampp.1_7_7 and 1.7.1 as /opt/lampp.1_7_1 you can create a sym link to /opt/lampp. Based on the version choice you can change the sym link.

But the pain is if you have to switch versions you have delete the link and recreate a new one. So to avoid this, I found a script that can do the job.

Refer to this article (dead link, web.archive.org backup) to create the sym link

Script can help you to:

• gives a choice of available versions of XAMPP (based on folder names containing them, based on the pattern shown above),
• stops the XAMPP server processes,
• deletes the existing lampp soft link,
• creates a new soft link pointing at the folder containing the the chosen version of XAMPP.

Source

Answer 2

Follow the idea to create a link, I try to make this works. Remember that I am not a pro, I was looking for a solution and make this script to my self and share with you.

Just to future questions if you want to install 2 versions of xampp on Linux you have to install: Example: xampp php5 on /opt/lampp then rename it to /opt/lampp5, then do the same with the php7 bin installer (or tar) and rename it to /opt/lampp7. then copy this code into a new script.sh file, make it writable chmod +x script.sh, then run it $ ./script.sh or $ ./script.sh 5 start here is the code example running fine on ubuntu 16.04, its just a simple script to make it work on this kind of problem, since on windows we can do it at the installation steps.

#!/bin/bash

LAMPP_VERSION=$1
LAMPP_ACTION=$2

LAMPP="/opt/lampp"
XAMPP=$LAMPP"/xampp"

function stopall {
    sudo $XAMPP stopapache
    sudo $XAMPP stopmysql
}

function startall {
    sudo $XAMPP startapache
    sudo $XAMPP startmysql
}

function stopmysql {
    sudo $XAMPP stopmysql
}

function stopapache {
    sudo $XAMPP stopapache
}

function startmysql {
    sudo $XAMPP startmysql
}

function startapache {
    sudo $XAMPP startapache
}

function checklampplink {

    # check if exist a link and delete it
    if [[ -L "$LAMPP" && -d "$LAMPP" ]]
        then
            echo "$LAMPP is a symlink to a directory: try DELETE!"
            sudo rm -f $LAMPP
        else
            echo "NO $LAMPP LINK WAS FOUND!"
    fi

    # create a new link
    echo "try to create LAMPP link ..."
    cd /opt
    ln -s "$LAMPP$LAMPP_VERSION" "lampp"

    ## check if is created
    if [[ -L "$LAMPP" && -d "$LAMPP" ]];
        then
            echo $LAMPP "created!"
        else
            echo "LINK not created! exit 1"
            exit 1
    fi
}

function checkservices {

    # check if services exists and try to stop property
    PIDS_MYSQL=$(ps -C mysqld -C mysqld_safe -o pid=)
    PIDS_APACHE=$(ps -C /opt/lampp/bin/ -o pid=)

    if [ -n $PIDS_MYSQL ];
        then
            stopmysql
        else
            echo "NO MYSQL TO KILL"
    fi
    if [ -n "$PIDS_APACHE" ];
        then
            stopapache
        else
            echo "NO APACHE TO KILL"
    fi

}

### begin ###



####
# get an action
if [ -z $LAMPP_ACTION ];
    then
        echo
        echo "ACTION: ( start | stop | restart)?"
        read LAMPP_ACTION
    else
        echo "ACTION SET TO: "$LAMPP_ACTION
fi
# if action is stop exit
if [ "$LAMPP_ACTION" == "stop" ];
    then
        stopall
        exit 0
fi

####
# get a version
if [ -z $LAMPP_VERSION ];
    then
        echo
        echo "VERSION: ( 5 | 7 )? "
        read LAMPP_VERSION
     else
        echo "VERSION SET TO: " $LAMPP_VERSION
fi
if [[ "$LAMPP_VERSION" = "5" || "$LAMPP_VERSION" = "7" ]];
    then
        echo "GOOD version continue ..."
    else
        echo "Wrong version exit 1"
        exit 1
fi

## if action is start or restart do the same
checkservices

# check folder link
checklampplink

echo

echo "Select an option to START:"
echo "1) ALL current installed services on xampp"
echo "2) Apache and Mysql - phpmyadmin"
echo
echo "Type enter to start option default ( 1 ) "
read USER_START
echo
echo "Starting services ..."
echo

if [ -z $USER_START ];
    then
        startapache
        startmysql
     else
        if [ "$USER_START" = "1" ];
            then
                startall
            else
                startapache
                startmysql
        fi
fi

echo "Done";
exit 0

if this code have any syntax problem, sorry I just paste here. good luck!